BANGKOK, Feb 21 (TNA) - Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said Thursday that Thailand wanted to see the plan by the Myanmar government to hold a referendum on a new constitution to materialise and be reliable.
Speaking in a telephone interview while attending a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), held on Singapore's Sentosa Island, Mr. Noppadon said Thailand as a close neighbor of Myanmar would persuade senior officials of that country to understand the importance of democracy.
Mr. Noppadon said he had held talks with his Myanmar counterpart Nyan Win that problems faced by Myanmar would affect Thailand because the two countries shared a 2,400-kilometre long border and that Thailand also supported UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari's planned visit to Myanmar again in early March.
Stressing that organising a referendum on the new constitution is totally an "internal affair of Myanmar", Mr. Noppadon said he had held informal talks with his Myanmar counterpart and told the latter that Thailand had gained experience on the matter and would be pleased to render its cooperation.
He said a general election would be held in the next two years if the planned referendum on the new constitution is held as planned.
Myanmar military regime made an announcement on February 9 that it would hold a referendum on a new constitution in May and that general elections would be held in 2010, the first in 20 years.
But Foreign Minister Nyan Win told ASEAN foreign ministers meeting in Singapore on Tuesday that the constitution would bar detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, also head of the National League for Democracy (NLD) which won a landslide victory in general elections in 1990, from running in elections because she was married to a foreigner.
Despite the landslide victory in that election, the military regime ignored the result and has kept Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.
Several ASEAN members have expressed dissatisfaction over the Myanmar government's action in its continued detention of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. For example, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has
said her country's Congress would not ratify the charter if Myanmar does not release her. (TNA)-E111
Political News : Last Update : 17:38:08 21 February 2008 (GMT+7:00)
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