Myanmar 'road map' forum set for Bangkok postponed

Asian Political News, April 26, 2004

BANGKOK, April 23 Kyodo

A second round of international talks on democratization in Myanmar set for Bangkok next week has been postponed after Myanmar withdrew from the meeting, saying it is busy with preparation for a ''coming national convention,'' the Thai Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung informed Thailand on Friday he could not attend the meeting, but he did ask for a new meeting date after Myanmar's ''national convention,'' which is scheduled to meet May 17, Thai Foreign Ministry's spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said.

''Myanmar said they're sorry they cannot attend the meeting as it's an important period for the preparation for the national convention in which Win Aung himself will be occupied with the preparation,'' Sihasak told Kyodo News.

The Bangkok forum, dubbed the ''Bangkok Process,'' had been set for April 29-30 and aimed to have Myanmar explain to the international community the progress of its plans for national reconciliation and transition to democracy.

Representatives from 17 countries in Europe and Asia and the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail were to have attended the Bangkok meeting.

Sihasak said Thailand will work on the next earliest date for the meeting, after May 17.

Reconvening its ''national convention'' is the first step in the Myanmar junta's seven-step ''road map'' for emergence of a democratic government.

The road map was unveiled last August when the Myanmar junta said it would invite all political parties, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), to work toward reconciliation and a new constitution.

The junta called a general election more than a decade ago, but then refused to vacate office when the opposition NLD won in a landslide over candidates supported by the ruling generals.

Suu Kyi has been detained since May last year following what the junta said were clashes between her supporters and pro-government demonstrators in Myanmar's north.

The Myanmar junta last Saturday allowed the NLD to reopen its Yangon headquarters, which had been closed since last May, amid rumors that Suu Kyi would be released from house arrest this week.

Kyodo News sources in Yangon, however, dismissed the rumors as ''unfounded'' and have suggested it may be some time yet before the junta releases Suu Kyi.

There has been strong international pressure on the Yangon generals to let the Nobel laureate resume regular political activities, but even though the junta has eased restrictions on some NLD members and activities Suu Kyi and NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo remain under guard.