Myanmar's crippled pro-democracy opposition will be allowed to operate normally before a national convention this year and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi could be freed from house arrest, Foreign Minister Win Aung said yesterday.
"I think it could change," Win Aung said when asked whether the junta was considering lifting the restrictions on the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who was taken into detention last May after unrest that triggered a crackdown on her party.
Win Aung, here at a regional meeting, told reporters that there was no date set for the landmark national convention, the first step in the junta's "road map" to democracy which it has said will begin this year.
The convention, which will draft a new constitution, will be launched "maybe in the first six months [of the year] or during the second six months, it depends on the completion of our preparations," he said.
The minister said that the restrictions on Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which was effectively shut down in May, would be lifted as part of confidence-building measures.
"The government is doing all it can to normalize the situation. It's something that will take place ... That's the atmosphere we would like to see," he said.
The league's participation and the conditions its leader is under will be critical to the credibility of the convention and the entire road map, billed as eventually leading to "free and fair" elections.
The NLD withdrew from a previous convention in 1995 on the grounds it was unrepresentative and this time the government has insisted that all the pro-democracy and ethnic political parties will be invited.
However, with its leader under detention for the past nine months, the NLD is not believed to be in a position to make a decision on whether to attend.
"They could be a part of it ... the question of whether the NLD participate or not among themselves they are considering," Win Aung said.
Thailand, which hosted the first international talks on prospects for reform in Myanmar last December, said over the weekend that it hopes to hold another round before the middle of this year, suggesting it believes that at the minimum a date for the convention will be announced by then.
"We feel that since the meeting of the Bangkok process there has been progress," said Thai foreign ministry spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow, referring to the 12-nation talks.
"We hope that there will be more progress soon," he said.
Win Aung said he believed a second meeting would take place and that "I am willing to take part in it."
The road map was unveiled by the prime minister, General Khin Nyunt, last August as part of a public relations campaign rolled out by the junta after it took Suu Kyi into detention.
Win Aung dismissed suggestions that the road map was an attempt to stall the democracy process and win some relief from the sanctions that have helped cripple Myanmar's economy.
"We don't do our national convention for the sake of aid. It's not a question that crosses our minds," he said. "We are not trying to drag the process longer for the sake of enjoying power."
The minister conceded however that with the agreement last month of a ceasefire with the main rebel group, the Karen National Union, the regime could no longer justify its existence after four decades in power.
"For the first time we are not fighting any more and we are very hopeful a lasting peace can be reached ... it will solve the last remaining problems of our country," he said.
"If all the problems are solved there is no need for a military government," he said.
"Now we are getting old. Aung San Suu Kyi and I were born in the same year and the future of our country is waiting for us to set the course," the 58-year old Win Aung said.
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