The actions by the Burmese regime are simply a repeat and repackaging of old tactics and without a new approach, the country could easily fall back into its historic conflict patterns and civil war.
By
MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
If Burma’s military regime goes ahead with its promised general election this year, some 27.2 million voters will be deprived of the chance to cast a ballot for the political party.
When Suu Kyi is free, she probably will not have the NLD party as a platform to express her views, but the Burmese public and the international community will still look to her for leadership.
On March 29, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) colleagues will deliberate and decide on whether they will participate in the generals' "election."
BANGKOK—Burma's military government has pledged to hold elections sometime in 2010. But far from energizing the long-oppressed opposition and ethnic groups, the prospect of
Leaders of Burma's opposition National League for Democracy have some hard choices to make because of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition to the general election.
"Once her [Aung San Suu Kyi's] sentence expires in November, and that notion is not disputed, it is our understanding that she will have served her sentence." —Nyan Win, the foreign minister of Burma