Free Myanmar election 'possible in

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Subject: Free Myanmar election 'possible in near future' 

Free Myanmar election 'possible in near future'

Lt. Col. Hla Min of the Myanmar regime told reporters at a press conference
held at the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo Wednesday that a free election can be
held in the country "between two to three years," once it has finished
deliberations on the sixth chapter of its draft constitution.

The regime, called the State Peace and Development Council, has been
refusing to cede power to the National League for Democracy, the major
opposition party led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which
won a landslide victory in 1988.

Instead, it convened a national convention in 1993 to review the draft of a
new 11-chapter constitution, but the body has not sat for more than three
years and only 60 percent of the draft has been discussed.

The regime insists that the deliberations are continuing at working levels.

The NLD, which is not participating in the current drafting process,
initially participated in the convention but withdrew in November 1995,
complaining of its undemocratic nature, and was formally ejected by the
junta in December of that year.

Hla Min defended the delay, stressing that the sixth chapter, which deals
with "power sharing" between central government and minority regions, is
crucial to the future of the country made up of 135 ethnic groups.

Although the draft constitution is widely considered to be a carbon copy of
the Indonesian constitution that existed under the regime of former
Indonesian President Suharto, Hla Min denied this, saying that Myanmar had
studied the constitutions of over 100 countries.

"Most of our ideas came from the American and Western constitutions," he
stressed.

However, Hla Min reconfirmed that the junta is determined to draft a
constitution, like Indonesia's, that will ensure a role for the military
forces in the country's future political structure.

Hla Min and Brig. Gen. Kyaw Win, deputy chief of the Office of Strategic
Studies at the Defense Ministry, started a 10-day visit on Jan. 20 at the
invitation of the Foreign Ministry.

A ministry source explained that the ranking intelligence officers were
invited to exchange opinions with leading pro- and antiregime figures in
political and journalistic circles.


This exposure may indirectly contribute to the democratization of the
Myanmar government, the source added.