Myanmar Oppn offers to recognise military rule

Aung San Suu Kyi's party has offered to recognise Myanmar's military rule if the generals running the country free its leader.

Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party has offered to recognise Myanmar's military rule if the generals running the country free its leader and summon a parliament whose election in 1990 they ignored.

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The proposal would allow the generals to become a legally accepted transitional government while talks are held on moving the former Burma to democracy, the National League for Democracy (NLD) said.

There was no immediate response and acceptance appeared unlikely after the generals who have ruled Myanmar in various guises since 1962 extended the house arrest of a top Suu Kyi aide by another year and railed against foreign critics.

"The SPDC needs to convene a people's parliament with the representatives-elect of the 1990 election," the NLD said in proposals sent to foreign news agencies on Tuesday and referring to the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

"Then, that parliament will have to declare the State Peace and Development Council de jure," it said in proposals first read out at a party gathering on Sunday.

"Only a people's parliament is vested with the power to declare it so," it said.

The party said the proposal, which would remain on the table until April 17, will enable the SPDC to act as a transitional government until the emergence of a parliamentary government formed with representatives elected by the people.

If a mediator were needed, a head of state from the 10-strong Association of South East Asian Nations, one of the few international groupings, which will have Myanmar as a member, could be chosen, it added.

But, the NLD statement said, Suu Kyi would have to be freed from house arrest to take part in talks on political reform.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is not only the leader of the National League for Democracy that won the unanimous support of the entire people in 1990 election, but also a leader trusted and recognised by all democratic forces and ethnic nationalities," it said.

"She is also a leader who is capable of making political compromises."

However, current expectations are that Suu Kyi will remain under house arrest at her lakeside villa in Yangon, cut off from the outside world.

On Monday, the junta extended the house arrest of Suu Kyi's aide Tin Oo, 79, who was arrested with her in May 2003 after a bloody clash between NLD supporters and government backers.

Suu Kyi's house arrest was extended for six months in November.

The junta is pursuing what it calls a seven-step roadmap to democracy currently focused on an on-again, off-again constitutional conference, which the NLD is boycotting because Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.

Critics say the conference, suspended recently until later this year, is designed to produce a constitution, which will cement military power.

On Sunday, in message to the nation marking the 59th anniversary of an agreement forged by Aung San, Suu Kyi's father, to demand independence from Britain, junta chief Than Shwe showed no signs of softening.

He railed against western critics, led by the United States, which has imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar.

"Some powers wishing to dominate and manipulate the Union of Myanmar are trying to cause racial dissension to ruin national solidarity and propagate a recurrence of armed conflicts and the obstruction of national development," he said.

"We must be vigilant against the steps and schemes of the neo-colonialists."