Suu Kyi's party to draft new Burmes

[tinkyi@xxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Suu Kyi's party to draft new Burmese constitution

Suu Kyi's Party to draft new Burmese Constitution
-------------------------------------------------
by-Atsuo Hirata ( Asahi Shimbun )

Rangoon- Pro-democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Sunday that
her National League for Democracy( NLD ) has started discussing
a new constitution for Burma in its three-day congress.The NLD 
was planning to setup a special committee to draft a new 
constitution, Suu Kyi told a press conference after the first
day session of the congress of party members. The NLD move is
being seen by knowledgeable observers as an attempt to draw the
military junta's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
into negotiations with the NLD. Since Suu Kyi's release from
house arrest in july, 1995 there has been no contact between the 
two sides.
	By presenting its draft constitution, the NLD will able 
to publicize its blueptint for a democratic society, thus forcing
the hand of the junta, observers added. Originallly the NLD 
congress was intended to be a three-day meeting of the NLD 
legislators elected in the 1990 general election, which the military
refused to recognize after first-time opposition candidates won
392 out of 485 contested seats. This plan had to be drastically 
revised after the junta last week arrested 238 parliamentarians,
plus about 30 other NLD party members, in an obvious effort to block 
the congress. 
	About 300 NLD members attended the first-day session held in 
Rangoon, but only 17 of them had won parliamentary seats in 1990.
Embassy officials of several countries including Japan, the United-
States, France, Thailand and Australia were invited to the meeting's
opening session Sunday. The military regime did not block roads
leading to the congress or obviously interfere with Sunday's 
proceedings." The first thing that the government must do is to hold
a parliament according to the result of the 1990 election," said 
Suu Kyi. But Suu Kyi also said the NLD will keep the door open to 
negotiations with the SLORC. "The only way we will go along is to
invite not only the people but also the government." she said.
	NLD's central committee, its top decision-making body, will
announce a declaration or resolution on Tuesday, the final day of 
the congress. Suu Kyi told about 5,000 citizens gathered in front of
her house  that the first-day session was a great successs.
----------------------------- # ---------------------------
Information Committee
Burma Youth Volunteer Association-Japan.