AP

Posted: 2008-02-18 12:03:02

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar’s main pro-democracy party warned Monday that the ruling military junta’s unilateral announcement of a constitutional referendum and general elections was undemocratic and could hurt national stability.

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy stopped short, however, of advocating a boycott or a “no” vote for the draft constitution, prepared under military guidance.

On Feb. 9, the government announced plans for a May referendum on the new constitution, to be followed by general elections in 2010. It was the first time the junta has set specific dates for steps in an earlier-announced “roadmap to democracy.”

The plans have been widely criticized for failing to include any input from Suu Kyi’s party, which won a general election in 1990 but was not allowed by the military to take power.

In a statement Monday, the party said the junta’s announcement could affect peace and stability and aggravate the country’s “political, economic and social woes.”

The unilateral move did not support “meaningful political dialogue and the national reconciliation process,” it said.

It criticized the military government for neglecting the suggestions and demands of the United Nations and the international community, calling for a substantive and meaningful dialogue with Suu Kyi and representatives of the country’s ethnic minorities.

Monday’s NLD statement also said the referendum could not be free and fair because campaigning against the draft charter could violate a 1996 law on “protecting the peaceful and systematic transfer of state responsibilities.” The law bans public meetings and expressions aimed at undermining stability, and violators face up to 20 years in prison.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been under international pressure to make democratic reforms, especially since it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September. The U.N. estimates at least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained in the crackdown.