August 18, 2004 - 3:30 AM

Annan demands Suu Kyi's release

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Military-ruled Myanmar's plan for democracy will fail unless opposition parties such as Nobel
peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy are part of the process, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

If opposition views are not reflected, "the road map process will be incomplete, lacking in credibility and therefore unable to gain
the full support of the international community, including the countries of the region," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan said.

As a first step toward democracy in the former Burma, Annan urged the government to quickly release Suu Kyi and engage her
party and other opposition groups "in substantive dialogue on how they can work together for the benefit of the people of
Myanmar," the spokesman said.

The government should also allow Annan's special envoy, Malaysian Razali Ismail, to return as soon as possible so he can
resume helping the reclusive Southeast Asian nation on its promised transition to multiparty rule, U.N. spokesman Stephane
Dujarric said.

Myanmar last month adjourned its constitution-drafting National Convention with no word on when it would resume.

Most of the 1,088 delegates attending the assembly, which opened on May 17, were handpicked by the ruling junta, and Suu Kyi
was left out despite an earlier government pledge to the United Nations that all ethnic groups and political parties would be able to
participate.

The military, which has ruled the southeast Asian country in various guises since 1962, convened the assembly as a first step on
its "road map to democracy" announced last year.

Critics say the process has no credibility without Suu Kyi and her party, which refused to take part while she remained under
house arrest. The party overwhelmingly won Myanmar's last democratic election in 1990 but the military ignored the vote.