Govt scoffs at Burma’s ‘free’ elections

brisbanetimes.com : Australia has described as a sham claims by Burma’s military regime that it plans to hold multi-party elections within three years.Burma’s military rulers made a surprise announcement at the weekend on an election timetable, indicating a constitutional referendum in May would set the stage for elections in 2010.

But it remains unclear whether detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party will be allowed to take part.

The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 – the last ballot held – but the military junta refused to accept the result, leaving the nation one of the poorest and most isolated in Asia.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is highly sceptical of the latest exercise by Burma.

“We’re frankly very sceptical, we’re not persuaded that this is anything more than a cynical sham,” he told AAP.

“Any genuine movement towards democracy or respect for human rights can only be done in cooperation with the international community and also with the political leaders in Burma.

“On my advice to date, there has been little or no consultation.”

Burma has been under increasing international scrutiny since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last year.

Human rights groups believe as many as 100 people were killed in September when the government quashed protest rallies led by Buddhist monks.

Hundreds of other demonstrators were taken away and jailed.

In the aftermath of the protests, United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has made two visits to Burma to talk to the generals but has so far been prevented further entry.

Mr Smith said Mr Gambari should be given the access he needs.

“We very strongly believe that you can only have genuine movement to democracy and respect of human rights in Burma if there is full and complete participation by the international community and all political players in Burma,” he said.

Australia is one of 14 nations taking part in a UN-convened “Group of Friends” of Burma, which was created to help pursue change in the south-east Asian nation.

Mr Smith has been discussing Burma with various political leaders he has met over the past two months during his travels to Indonesia, the United States and Japan.

He raised it with Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda and China’s foreign minister Yang Jiechi, who both visited Australia last week.

“We do believe that greater international community pressure, both through the United Nations and generally, has to be brought to bear on the regime,” Mr Smith said.

“We think more international community pressure is required to actually to start making a genuine move towards democracy and human rights in Burma.

“Everyone understands that there is an issue here.”