Army-ruled Myanmar adjourns constitution talks
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Myanmar's military rulers adjourned a constitution-drafting convention on Friday which is expected to reconvene for its final session next May, delegates said.
Convention convener Lieutenant-General Thein Sein told the 1,000-plus delegates, most of them handpicked by the junta, they would resume their work at "a time convenient for all," one delegate said.
"Although he did not say exactly when, it is understood that the convention will resume in May next year for the last session," the delegate told Reuters.
The junta, which has run the former Burma under various guises since 1962, says the convention is key to a seven-stage "roadmap to democracy" laid out in 2003 by former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who was ousted in October 2004.
Western governments, analysts and diplomats say it is nothing but a smokescreen to preserve the generals' grip on power, especially while opposition figures such as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remain under house arrest.
Critics point to a key objective of the convention which ensures a "leadership role" for the army in politics.
The military started the national convention process in early 1993 but never committed to a schedule to conclude the exercise boycotted by major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
The United States said on Thursday it would renew efforts early next year to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution to prod the junta to allow greater freedom and improve human rights.
"We remain concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian and political situation in Burma, which poses a threat to stability in the region," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington.
The United States has repeatedly pledged to ask the Security Council to take action on Myanmar, but has not yet introduced a promised draft resolution.
Russia, a permanent member of the 15-nation council with veto power, and others on the council have argued that Myanmar did not constitute an international threat to peace and security, which is the council's mandate under the U.N. Charter.
Convention convener Lieutenant-General Thein Sein told the 1,000-plus delegates, most of them handpicked by the junta, they would resume their work at "a time convenient for all," one delegate said.
"Although he did not say exactly when, it is understood that the convention will resume in May next year for the last session," the delegate told Reuters.
The junta, which has run the former Burma under various guises since 1962, says the convention is key to a seven-stage "roadmap to democracy" laid out in 2003 by former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who was ousted in October 2004.
Western governments, analysts and diplomats say it is nothing but a smokescreen to preserve the generals' grip on power, especially while opposition figures such as Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi remain under house arrest.
Critics point to a key objective of the convention which ensures a "leadership role" for the army in politics.
The military started the national convention process in early 1993 but never committed to a schedule to conclude the exercise boycotted by major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
The United States said on Thursday it would renew efforts early next year to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution to prod the junta to allow greater freedom and improve human rights.
"We remain concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian and political situation in Burma, which poses a threat to stability in the region," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington.
The United States has repeatedly pledged to ask the Security Council to take action on Myanmar, but has not yet introduced a promised draft resolution.
Russia, a permanent member of the 15-nation council with veto power, and others on the council have argued that Myanmar did not constitute an international threat to peace and security, which is the council's mandate under the U.N. Charter.
