Burma Opposition Says Cautious 'Yes' to Talks
Apr 29 (Reuters) - Myanmar's main opposition party led by detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi gave a conditional thumbs up on Thursday to talks organized by the ruling junta on a new constitution, a party spokesman said.
National League for Democracy (NLD) secretary U Lwin said if the military government released the Nobel peace laureate from house arrest and agreed to a set of procedural proposals, the party would take part in the planned May 17 National Convention.
"We've decided to cooperate with the SPDC with a view to the interests of the country," U Lwin told reporters at his house in the capital, Yangon, referring to the military government, officially known as the State Peace and Development Council.
"There has been a certain understanding between the two sides," he said after party leaders met Suu Kyi at her home in Yangon, where she has been detained.
The NLD's conditions also included the release of party vice chairman Tin Oo, the reopening of all NLD offices across the country and certain procedural proposals for the constitutional convention. He declined to give details.
Myanmar's ruling generals, under diplomatic pressure to install democracy, have asked about 30 NLD members to take part in the convention starting on May 17. But Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, who have been detained since a clash between NLD supporters and pro-junta youths last May, have not received invitation letters.
The NLD has said it will not take part unless both are released and is unhappy invitations have been extended to individuals rather than to the party. The junta has asked about 1,000 people, including members of ethnic minority political parties, to join a process it is touting as a step on a "road map" to democracy.
The constitution-drafting conference was suspended in 1996 after the NLD walked out accusing the military of manipulating the process to enshrine its role in politics, and its hold on power. The NLD swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to take power by the military, which has ruled in various guises since a 1962 coup.