Democratic Burmese Youths

Burma ends charter-drafting process with no timeframe for polls

YANGON -- Burma's military rulers Monday officially concluded their 14-year-old constitution drafting process with no timeframe set for a general election and return to democracy, delegates said.

National Convention chairman Lieutenant General Thein Sein in his closing remarks said the constitution drafting-process had required altogether 11 sessions, six between 1993 to 1996, and five between 2004 to 2007.

The conclusion of the National Convention marks the first step on Burma's so-called "roadmap" to "discipline flourishing democracy."

Thein Sein, a senior member of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as Burma's ruling junta styles itself, gave no timeframe Monday for a referendum to endorse the draft charter, nor for the future polls, delegates said.

The National Convention dubbed a sham by many Western observers and Burma's chief opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was officially launched on October 2, 1992, to draft a new charter for the country which had by then been under military rule for the past 30 years.

The military has argued that a new constitution was necessary before it could hand over power to a civilian government, a manoeuvre that was quickly seen as a ploy to hang on to power in the aftermath of the 1990 general election which the NLD, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, had won by a landslide.

The convention process, stalled in 1996 by an NLD walkout, was resurrected in 2004 as the first step in the junta's so-called roadmap to democracy.

Burma has been under military rule since 1962 when General Ne Win toppled the government of U Nu, the country's first and last elected prime minister after it was granted independence from Great Britain in 1949.

The draft charter has provided a dominant role for the military in the next government. At the final session the role of political parties, declaration of state of emergency, creation of the national flag, national emblem, national anthem and amendments were concluded.

//(Deutsche Presse-Agentur)