AP news
Sat Apr 5, 2008

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar’s state-run press warned Saturday that “terrorists” may be planning bombings during the country’s constitutional referendum next month, suggesting the alleged plots are linked to the nonviolent movement of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party — which is urging voters to reject the military junta’s proposed constitution as an undemocratic sham — rejected the allegations.

Saturday’s commentary in the state-owned New Light of Myanmar and other newspapers said a youth member of the NLD was arrested with explosives last month, and that it had been learned that “that terrorists will target busy places and strategic places to create public panic.”

It could be “deduced,” the commentary said, that subversive elements were planning terrorist acts during the annual Water Festival starting April 11 and at polling places for the referendum.

“Now, terrorist insurgents are active under the pretext of democracy movements,” it said.

Articles carried in state-run newspapers generally reflect the viewpoints of the military government.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for the NLD, said that he did not want to comment on the column but that he did not know of any of his party’s members being arrested with explosives.

The NLD has been known for its promotion of nonviolent change. Its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, has been in detention without trial for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

Myanmar has seen several mostly small-scale bombings in the past few years. The government has blamed the attacks on separate ethnic rebel groups seeking autonomy based on the border with Thailand.

The military junta, which has been heavily criticized after cracking down on pro-democracy demonstrations last year, announced in February that it will hold a constitutional referendum in May and a general election in 2010.

The upcoming referendum will be the first time since a 1990 general election that Myanmar’s people are allowed a vote of any kind. Suu Kyi’s party won that election, but the military refused to hand over power.

The text of the proposed constitution, obtained by The Associated Press, enshrines the military’s dominant role in politics, bars Suu Kyi from public office and protects members of the ruling junta from prosecution for past actions.

Suu Kyi has been in detention without trial for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

Myanmar has been without a constitution since 1988, when the current junta took power and scrapped the previous charter after violently quashing mass pro-democracy demonstrations.