Word: junta
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Lest any of Burma's 21 million eligible voters mistake the military junta's decision to hold parliamentary elections as an invitation for a democratic free-for-all, the government had gone out of its way to hand every advantage to the army-backed National Unity Party. The country's leading dissident, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 44, was barred from running for office and kept under house arrest. Other opposition politicians were similarly disqualified and detained, . and politicking was confined mostly to private homes. The day before last week's election, officials unexpectedly lifted martial law, which had been...
...government responded to the electoral rout with pledges to transfer power to a civilian government. But the timing remained vague, and the future role of the military was anything but clear. Although junta leader General Saw Maung announced that he would cede control "to the largest party," there were enough caveats to leave the opposition sleepless. First a constitution must be drafted, a process that diplomats warn could take as long as three years. And, Saw Maung cautioned, whoever threatens the protection of "national unity will not be tolerated...
...political party in order. "There's no ruling out the possibility that the National League for Democracy and the opposition in general could succumb to the old Burmese disease of factionalism," warns a Western diplomat based in Rangoon. Excessive wrangling within the league would provide the military junta with a convenient excuse to delay a transfer of power...
...cement its mandate. Party leaders aim to call the new National Assembly into session within 60 days after the election. To forestall extensive negotiations over the drafting of a new constitution, the league may resurrect the 1947 constitution, which was suspended in 1962. And it plans to invite the junta to enter into talks on the transfer of power. "We have to calm the present political anger and forget about political reprisals," says Khin Nghwe, 48, who belongs to the league's executive committee and won an assembly seat. As for the military, Nghwe says, "the army should return...
...junta's information committee announced last week that the military would play no part in drafting or approving a new constitution. Some Burmese take heart in the fact that the National League for Democracy claimed victories even in districts populated almost exclusively by military families, including the home district of reclusive Ne Win, who resigned his post as party chairman in 1988, but remains the most powerful man in the country. Other observers are worried that the slightest hint of civil disturbance may provoke the military to repeat the butchery of 1988, which resulted in the massacre of more than...