Myanmar rejects calls to include Suu Kyi in reforms

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar - Military-ruled Myanmar on Monday brushed off mass pro-democracy protests as "trivial" and refused to include detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in its own plodding reform plans.

Top officials spoke to reporters at the first press conference since the military staged a deadly crackdown on protests in September, leaving at least 15 dead and 3,000 jailed, according to a UN envoy.

Buddhist monks and former student leaders led the protests in the main city of Yangon and in provincial towns around the country, in the biggest challenge to military rule in nearly two decades.

But Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, the information minister, brushed off the protests as the work of "bogus" monks organised by exiled dissidents and the United States.

"Actually, the August-September protests were trivial for the whole country," Kyaw Hsan said.

"It is found with sound evidence that ex-convicted bogus monks got joined with anti-government groups inside and outside the country," he said.

"Those unrests and violence, not participated by the majority of the people and the majority of monks, have been put under control," he said.

Myanmar's national police chief Khin Yi said that the protesters had hoped to overthrow the government.

"The demonstrations and protests were planned and conspired months ahead to topple the government," Khin Yi told reporters.

He accused a non-government organisation called the Forum for Democracy in Burma of working with exiled dissidents to orchestrate the protests, and said the US embassy had also helped train the activists."The American Centre held a three-day training course on infiltrating and organising the public," he said.

"The uprisings dissolved within a very short time frame simply because the general public did not take part and our security forces were able to make pre-emptive strikes," he added.

The crackdown drew international condemnation and demands for Myanmar to make democratic reforms and to free Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest.But Kyaw Hsan rejected those calls, saying the military government would stick to its own self-styled "road map" to democracy.

A 54-member panel appointed by the government began work Monday on drafting a new constitution, which it says will eventually lead to elections.

A National Convention of delegates, also chosen by the military, wrapped up 14 years of talks in September, laying out principles to be enshrined in the new charter.There is no timeline for completing the charter, and Kyaw Hsan ruled out any role for Aung San Suu Kyi or her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won elections in a landslide victory in 1990.

"No assistance or advice from other persons is required," he said, adding that no changes to the National Convention's work would be considered."It is not reasonable or fair to amend those principles adopted by the delegates," he said.

Since the crackdown, the United States and the European Union have toughened sanctions on Myanmar to push the government to open a dialogue on democracy.In hopes of defusing the global pressure, the government appointed a liaison officer to coordinate contacts with Aung San Suu Kyi.

The person chosen, Aung Kyi, told the press conference that his three meetings with the Nobel peace prize winner had yielded "positive developments," but he declined to elaborate.

The top US diplomat in Yangon, Shari Villarosa, warned on Friday that the new constitution would have no international credibility unless the military brought the NLD and other political groups into the process.

"If they can somehow open it up so that there is more debate and it looks more representative, then it will gain more international acceptability," she told reporters in Bangkok."If they continue on the track that they are on, without any changes whatsoever, it will have no credibility," she said. - AFP/ir

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