Myanmar opposition looks to the future

Myanmar opposition looks to the future

YANGON (AFP): Myanmar's opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD) took stock yesterday of a nine-year struggle
against the country's ruling junta and looked to the future with
plans for its youth wing.

The second and final day of the NLD congress resumed with more
than 700 delegates in attendance after the military's State Law
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), in a surprise move, gave
its consent to the meeting.

Yesterday's agenda was dominated by two political papers, the
first of which looked back on the party's trials and tribulations
since it was set up in 1988 amid nationwide demonstrations
against the previous military government.

In the same year, SLORC took power in a bloody crackdown on
pro-democracy protesters in which thousands were killed.

But the second paper looked forward to the party's efforts
with the NLD youth, NLD sources said.

It was the first national congress the party has been allowed
to hold in two years, as the junta attempts to improve its image
following the country's admission in July to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Earlier this month, SLORC's first secretary Lieutenant-General
Khin Nyunt invited NLD chairman Aung Shwe for open discussions
which the government said could pave the way for dialog, but
balked at including Aung San Suu Kyi.

Analysts said the SLORC appeared to be trying to polish its
image while marginalizing the popular leader and Nobel laureate.

The party reinstalled Aung San Suu Kyi as leader following her
release from six years of house arrest in 1995, but the junta has
not recognized the move.

An NLD document read out to delegates at the mass meeting
Saturday said the party remained open to "genuine dialog".

"The NLD will always welcome and leave a way open for a dialog
to solve the nation's problems ... but such a dialogue must be
meaningful as well as genuine," it said.

Such a dialog must be based on national interests and
guarantee democracy and human rights, it added.

The document charged that previous meetings on the terms of
the military government not only restricted the rights of a
political party to nominate its own delegates, but were "one-
sided affairs."

"Meeting and talking with other organizations and choosing and
nominating their own representatives is the sole right of the
party," it said.

The SLORC has come under repeated fire from some western
nations and human rights activists for reported abuses and its
suppression of the democracy movement in Myanmar.

Analysts and diplomats said the SLORC allowed the congress to
proceed to avoid the international uproar which followed the
detentions of hundreds of delegates when blocking the party's
previous three attempts to hold a congress.

Tight security was deployed around Aung San Suu Kyi's
residential compound, which was off-limits to traffic and the
public, but more than twice the number of delegates than
officially permitted were again let through the cordons.

Several hundred were turned away, however, as an estimated
1,300 NLD delegates gathered from across the country, despite
efforts by local authorities to deny transportation from some of
the more far-flung areas.

ASEAN members have been quietly pressing the junta to improve
its image and seek accommodation with the country's most
representative institution.

The NLD won more than 80 percent of seats in 1990
parliamentary elections never ratified by the SLORC.

But sources said Myanmar's foreign ministry was trying to
discourage diplomats based here, especially from Asian countries,
from attending the closing ceremonies of the congress.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.