By Michael Heath
April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Myanmar's military junta is creating a ``climate of fear'' before its constitutional referendum next month, the U.S. State Department said, after six youth activists were arrested for campaigning against the draft charter.
Democracy and human rights activists have been ``assaulted and beaten with sticks'' in the former capital, Yangon, on two separate occasions in the past two weeks, spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday. Such abuses ``contribute to the climate of fear and repression in Burma as the regime prepares to conduct a referendum on its draft constitution.''
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party yesterday called on voters to reject the charter in the nation formerly known as Burma. The National League for Democracy asked people ``to clearly and bravely vote `No''' when casting their ballots, Agence France-Presse cited the party saying in a statement.
Myanmar's military is considering returning the Southeast Asian country to civilian rule under a model similar to the government of late Indonesian President Suharto, who guaranteed the army seats in Parliament, United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari said last month. The junta rejected UN monitors for the constitutional referendum.
The draft charter still hasn't been released to the public. A leaked copy of the document shows Suu Kyi is barred from holding office on the grounds she was married to a U.K. national, AFP reported. It also gives the military dominance over the government after multiparty elections scheduled for 2010.
Muslim Leaders
The day after the March 29 arrest of the six protesters, five Muslim community leaders in Rakhine state were arrested, the State Department said.
``The regime's arrests of individuals campaigning against the constitution, its failure to publish the constitution and welcome independent referendum monitors, and its continued refusal to release political prisoners undercut any claim that this referendum will be free and fair,'' McCormack said in a statement issued in Washington.
Suu Kyi's NLD was excluded from the National Convention to draft the constitution that began meeting in 2004 and completed its work last September.
The NLD said yesterday the constitution wouldn't bring democracy to Myanmar, AFP reported.
Under the charter, the military would receive powers to declare a state of emergency, allowing the generals to take control of the government while granting them immunity from prosecution, according to AFP.
Reconciliation Talks
UN envoy Gambari has made three trips to Myanmar since the military, which has run the country since 1962, crushed the biggest anti-government demonstrations in almost 20 years last September. The regime agreed to reconciliation talks after international condemnation of the crackdown that left at least 31 people dead.
The U.S. tightened sanctions on Myanmar two months ago after the junta failed to meet pledges to begin talks with opposition groups. It imposed an asset freeze on officials and blacklisted companies linked to the regime.
Suu Kyi's NLD won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 in a result rejected by the military. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years.
The State Department yesterday renewed its call for the release of all detainees and political prisoners, including Suu Kyi, and for genuine talks between the regime's leadership and democratic and ethnic minorities.
Such discussions should lead ``to a transition to democracy, as called for by the people of Burma and the UN Security Council in its October 2007 Presidential Statement,'' McCormack said.
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