Burma Lifts Martial Law in Rangoon : Ruling Party Will Consider Election on Democracy Issue

The president of Burma lifted martial law today and said the ruling party will hold an emergency congress Sept. 12 to consider letting the people decide whether to return to a multiparty democracy.

Maung Maung, speaking in a nationwide radio broadcast after months of protests against one-party rule, said that if the Burma Socialist Program Party declines to accept a pluralist system, the entire party leadership will resign.

If the party does agree to put the issue to the people, Parliament will amend the Constitution at an emergency session the next day to pave the way for holding the referendum, the radio said.

End to Curfews

Maung Maung, 63, Burma’s third leader in a little more than a month, said martial law has been lifted in Rangoon and the northern city of Prome, and overnight curfews that were imposed in several towns and cities, including Rangoon, were ended.

He noted that veteran former leader Ne Win, who resigned July 23 after demonstrations, had proposed at an extraordinary Socialist Party meeting last month a referendum on scrapping the 26-year-old one-party system.

The party rejected the motion, but Maung Maung said the leadership would put it before the party again.

Earlier today, 300,000 people thronged the capital, declaring victory over the government after a formal announcement that martial law was to end.

Democracy Demanded

Chanting and singing demonstrators, massing beneath flags and banners demanding “democracy, democracy,” had swamped the streets of Rangoon and other cities for the last three days.

Maung Maung asked the people to cooperate and unite to prevent further disturbances while the congress prepared for its meeting.

In a first reaction, a Western diplomat said, “It looks as if Maung Maung is forcing the party’s hand” to accept a referendum. “It’s a ray of hope from the dark.”

Maung Maung said that if the general election he envisioned went ahead, many members of the present administration would not be allowed to run, including members of the top state body, the Council of State, state attorneys and judges.