Invitation for Democracy in Myanmar

Myanmar’s military government said Saturday it would invite Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party to join a constitutional convention beginning May 17, but refused to say whether the democracy activist and Nobel laureate would be freed from house arrest by then.

The participation of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party is considered crucial to the success of the convention, which was last convened in 1993 but suspended in 1996 after the party walked out, saying it was being forced to rubber-stamp the junta’s decisions.

The convention is the first step in a seven-point plan the military government announced last year to establish democracy in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962.

Foreign Minister Win Aung told reporters in Thailand’s capital that all “original members who had attended [the previous convention], including the NLD, will be invited.”

But it is not clear how the convention could proceed without Suu Kyi, one of the world’s most famous political prisoners and symbol of the struggle for democracy in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

She has spent at least nine of the last 13 years under house arrest, prompting widespread international criticism of the government. Her latest detention began last May after a clash between her supporters and a pro-junta mob.

Myanmar’s junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a democracy movement in a crackdown that left hundreds dead. The military rulers called elections in 1990, but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi’s party won.

In what appeared to have been a mistranslation, Win Aung was reported by Japanese media to have said Suu Kyi would be freed from house arrest in time for the convention.

Later, however, he was unclear about the assertion.

“I am not in a position to inform you right now,” he said.