NLD vows to convene Myanmar parliament

NLD vows to convene Myanmar parliament

YANGON (AFP): Myanmar's main opposition said yesterday it would form a new government by convening the parliament elected in 1990 but never allowed to sit as a major dissident group urged a national uprising against the junta.

"The National League for Democracy (NLD) will be convening a parliament soon," the leading opposition party of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement.

The statement did not say when it would be formed nor where it would sit.

The NLD call came as another leading Myanmar opposition group called for a nationwide revolt after the junta failed to convene parliament.

The Thailand-based All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), one of the biggest and most influential of opposition groups, said the junta had ignored the will of the people and the international community by failing to hand over power to pro- democracy forces.

"We therefore call on the people to begin an uprising, starting Aug. 21, to bring democracy and human rights to Burma," the ABSDF said in a statement, using the former official name for Myanmar.

"We believe that there is no reason to continue to ask the military for democracy and that the only way forward is through a people's movement."

The NLD, which led the opposition to a landslide victory in 1990 polls but has never been allowed to take power, had demanded the junta convene parliament yesterday or face unspecified consequences.

"The parliament been invested with powers. As representatives of the people they must take on these responsibilities," the NLD said.

"Given the prevailing situation today the parliamentarians have the responsibility to draft a future constitution along democratic lines.

"By failing to fulfill their obligations of convening this parliament the authorities have ignored the desire of the people but they have rescinded on their promises made earlier," the statement said.

"The National League for Democracy has a responsibility to convene parliament," it said.

A junta spokesman said he had not seen the statement and declined to comment: "We have nothing to say at the moment."

Foreign diplomats said the NLD was serious in its pledge to form a new parliament.

"They gave their deadline," said one western diplomat. "The government predictably ignored them so they had to act," the envoy said, adding: "Now we have to wait for the government's next move."

Aung San Suu Kyi was camped out on a bridge 25 kilometers from Yangon yesterday for a 10th consecutive day after being blocked from traveling to meet provincial supporters as the junta ignored her protest and her deadline for convening the parliament, foreign diplomats said.

The capital remained calm with no increased security presence other than extra traffic police outside schools, where university exams are being staged for the first time since campuses were closed after unrest in December 1996.

Truckloads of troops have been deployed late at night at strategic locations this week in what residents said was an apparent bid to discourage any form of protest.