MYANMAR: MYANMAR PROMISES TO CONVENE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION IN 2004 AT A 12-NATION MEETING IN BANGKOK

Record ID: 647426

  • Title: MYANMAR: MYANMAR PROMISES TO CONVENE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION IN 2004 AT A 12-NATION MEETING IN BANGKOK
  • Date: 15th December 2003
  • Summary: BANGKOK, THAILAND (DECEMBER 15, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIOR OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE 0.04 2. SV MYANMAR FOREIGN MINISTER WIN AUNG BEING WELCOMED BY THAI PRIME MINSTER THAKSIN SHINAWATRA 0.07 3. MCU MEDIA 0.10 4. SV UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL ENVOY FOR MYANMAR RAZALI ISMAIL SHAKING HANDS WITH THAKSIN 0.17 5. MCU WIN AUNG AND AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHRISTINE GALLUS SPEAKING 0.23 6. MCU MEDIA 0.26 7. PAN GROUP PHOTO OF ATTENDEES 0.34 8. SLV EXTERIOR OF FOREIGN MINISTRY 0.39 9. SV GROUP ENTERING MEETING ROOM 0.49 10. SV WIN AUNG SITTING DOWN 0.54 11. SV RAZALI SITTING 0.58 12. SV JAPANESE DEPUTY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS HITOSHI ANAKA AND INDIAN SPECIAL ENVOY OF MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS RAJIV IKRI SITTING IN MEETING 1.03 13. SLV WIN AUNG AND THAI FOREIGN MINSTER SURAKIART SATHIRATHAI SPEAKING 1.07 14. SLV OF MEETING 1.13 (U4) YANGON, MYANMAR (FILE) (REUTERS) 15. LV CHEERING CROWD 1.17 16. MCU AUNG SAN SUU KYI SPEAKING TO CROWD 1.29 17. TV/CU SPECTATORS CLAPPING (2 SHOTS) 1.36 18. MCU SUU KYI SPEAKING 1.50 19. PAN CHEERING CROWD 1.58 (U4) BANGKOK, THAILAND (DECEMBER 15, 2003) (REUTERS) 20. PAN OF NEWS CONFERENCE WITH SURAKIART 2.08 21. MCU (English) SURAKIART, SAYING "The meeting have been informed of the confidence-building process of all the parties concerned in Myanmar and the meeting have been informed of contact and communication between Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, which is a part of the confidence-building process. The meeting supports such a confidence-building process and expresses hope that it will be successful and our wish that the situation of Aung San Suu Kyi will be back to normal again." 2.50 22. MCU MEDIA 2.56 23. MCU (English) SURAKIART, SAYING "We have been informed that 2004 will be a busy year, 2004 will be a year that there will be a reconvening of the national convention and that it will be the year for the drafting of the constitution, which to us is the first time that we've been informed about these 2004 activities. And if you look at the seven point roadmap so that will cover two to three steps of the seven point roadmap already." 3.29 24. SV OF NEWS CONFERENCE 3.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 30th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BANGKOK, THAILAND AND YANGON, MYANMAR
  • City:
  • Country: Burma (Myanmar)
  • Reuters ID: LVACNCVX2OH5607PZ7YZUMT1M1JF
  • Story Text: Myanmar promises to convene constitutional
    convention in 2004 at a 12-nation meeting in Bangkok.



    Military-ruled Myanmar told a 12-nation meeting on
    Monday (December 15) it will embark on its promised "road
    map to democracy" by convening a constitutional convention
    next year, Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said.

    All political parties, including democracy icon Aung
    San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), would be
    invited to the convention, Surakiart quoted Myanmar Foreign
    Minister Win Aung as saying.

    Thailand, hoping to ease Myanmar's isolation, brought
    together a dozen countries to hear Win Aung explain the
    plan and there were few expectations of progress with Suu
    Kyi still languishing under house arrest.

    Pursuing a policy of "constructive engagement" with a
    neighbour shunned by much of the Western world, Thailand
    had wanted foreign ministers to attend, but none came.

    Most sent junior ministers or senior Foreign Ministry
    officials. Only Indonesia, which dispatched influential
    former Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, and the United Nations,
    which sent special envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismael, sent
    senior figures.

    Other participants included Australia, Austria, China,
    Singapore, Japan, Italy, current chairman of the European
    Union, India, France and Germany.

    The United States, which imposed more sanctions on
    Myanmar
    after Suu Kyi's arrest again in May, was not invited.

    Surakiart told reporters ahead of the meeting it was
    designed to build confidence between Yangon and the
    international community strained by its hardline treatment
    of Suu Kyi.

    Suu Kyi and scores of her supporters were locked up at
    the end of May following a bloody attack on her convoy by
    pro-government youths.

    Suu Kyi was kept at a secret location, for her own
    safety, according to the government, until September,
    when she went to hospital for an operation and then to her
    lakeside Yangon villa under house arrest.

    Her National League for Democracy won a landslide
    general election victory in 1990 but the military, which
    has ruled what used to be called Burma since 1962, ignored
    the result.

    Surakiart told the news conference Win Aung had said
    that Suu Kyi's life would be "normalised in the near
    future", and that there was ongoing communication between
    her and Yangon leadership.

    "The meeting have been informed of the
    confidence-building process of all the parties concerned in
    Myanmar and the meeting have been informed of contact and
    communication between Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and Daw
    Aung San Suu Kyi, which is a part
    of the confidence-building process. The meeting supports
    such a confidence-building process and expresses hope that
    it will be
    successful and our wish that the situation of Aung San Suu
    Kyi will be back to normal again," he said.

    He said he considered the meeting a breakthrough and
    that Win Aung's attendance made it clear that Myanmar is
    ready to proceed with national reconciliation.

    "We have been informed that 2004 will be a busy year,
    2004 will be a year that there will be a reconvening of the
    national convention and that it will be the year for the
    drafting of the constitution, which to us is the first time
    that we've been informed about these 2004 activities. And
    if you look at the seven point roadmap so that will cover
    two to three steps of the seven point roadmap already," he
    said.

    NLD sources in Yangon said the party had not been contacted
    by the isolated military government on holding a convention.

    The military government opened a convention in early
    1993 aimed at drawing up a constitution that would enshrine a
    leading role for the military in politics. Suu Kyi's party
    walked out of it in 1995. It has not met since 1996.

    A referendum is step three of the "road map to
    democracy" Khin Nyunt, who is also chief of military
    intelligence, outlined soon after taking office in August.


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