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Reuter: Drafting of a Constitution



Subject: Reuter: Drafting of a Constitution is Illegal in Burma

Drafting of a Constitution is Illegal in Burma

    By Rajan Moses
     RANGOON, July 10 (Reuter) - A senior Burmese military government
official said on Wednesday it was illegal for democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi to draft a constitution that would rival a pro-military charter now
being written.
     "That is not acceptable and is illegal," Lieutenant-General Kyaw Ba, a
member of the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), told
Reuters in an interview.
     "The constitution must be drafted by all kinds of people, all ethnic
groups and different levels of people," he said.
     Suu Kyi said on Wednesday her National League for Democracy (NLD) had
asked its leadership in May to write an alternative charter to a
pro-military one being drafted.
     The NLD in November pulled out of a SLORC-appointed convention that
has been ordered to ensure that the new constitution it is drafting
guarantees the military a "leading role" in politics.
     The SLORC last month introduced a law forbidding anyone from
interfering with its convention or drawing up a rival charter, allowing for
20-year jail terms for offenders.
     Kyaw Ba also said the military could not hand over administration to
Suu Kyi as the nation's many ethnic groups might, in a chain reaction,
agitate for independence.
     He did not say explain how a government led by Suu Kyi might incite
secession but said there was a fear that Burma could become another
Yugoslavia if its many ethnic minorities started seeking independence.
     "At the moment there is no one else who can handle Myanmar (Burma)
politics... Only we can control them (minority groups) and not let the
country disintegrate like ... Yugoslavia."
     Kyaw Ba, who is also hotels and tourism minister, said Suu Kyi should
not criticise the SLORC but cooperate with it as it tried to lay a firm
foundation for a strong future government.
     "Before we hand power to a civilian government we must have a very
firm foundation...a firm constitution. Only then can we have a firm
government and then I think we can hand power to a civilian government," he
said.
     Asked when a constitution might be ready and a power transfer from the
military might take place, Kyaw Ba said: "It must take time. After drafting
the constitution we must get the opinion of the people through a
referendum.
     "I think it will take a couple of years," he said.
     Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of house arrest a year ago on
Wednesday, has demanded a dialogue with the military on political reform
but said on Wednesday that the SLORC was afraid of negotiating with her.
     "Things don't stay the same forever," said Suu Kyi when asked how the
current impasse with the SLORC might be broken.
     Asked about boycott calls against Burma by some Western countries and
rights groups in support of Suu Kyi's democratic path, Kyaw Ba said his
country was not unduly worried.
     Some of the top investors already in Burma were from the United States
and Australia where the cries against Rangoon were shrill, he said.
     Burma also had a true friend in the seven-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which refused to interfere in Burma's
internal affairs and whose members invested in Burma despite calls to the
contrary by Suu Kyi.
     "We are self-sufficient. As long as we have good leaders and good
friends and neighbours like ASEAN we don't have to worry," he said.
  REUTER
KT
ISBDA