Myanmar’s ruling generals on Monday opened a round of talks on drafting a new Constitution and steering the isolated country toward what the junta calls ”disciplined democracy”.
More than 1 000 delegates handpicked by the regime are meeting for about two months at this secluded military compound outside Yangon for talks boycotted by the main opposition group and widely dismissed by foreign observers.
”We are in the process of transition to a disciplined democratic nation,” Lieutenant General Thein Sein, the head of the National Convention, said in an opening address.
”This is the first step in the transition to democracy, and it is the most crucial step. Genuine and disciplined democracy — there is no other way, this is the way.”
The regime has refused to give a timetable for the talks, which have been dismissed by the United States, the European Union and the United Nations.
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party, the National League for Democracy, is boycotting the talks to demand her release from house arrest, which was extended by six months on November 27.
”Those who are jealous of our success, both internal and external, have tried to disrupt our National Convention,” said Thein Sein.
”We must be aware of these elements. We must try to defend ourselves from the destructive elements.”
The talks resume just three days after the UN Security Council called for a formal meeting on Myanmar at the request of the United States.
Southeast Asian lawmakers have recently urged Myanmar’s expulsion from the Asean regional grouping unless it carries out democratic reforms within a year.
The military, which has ruled impoverished Myanmar, formerly called Burma, since 1962, has been accused of widespread human rights abuses. – Sapa-AFP