Report of Workshops held in Chiangmai, Thailand & New Delhi, India April 2000.The South African experience; Lessons Learned. Distinguishing between Burma and South Africa. The pre-negotiation phase -Creating the conditions for a negotiated settlement: Subjective and objective factors; Objective factors; International pressure; Economic pressures; Military factors; Internal mass opposition ; The sustainability of minority rule ; Subjective factors; Liberation movements; The regime; Making the negotiations option attractive. Establishing and sustaining the negotiating process: Dealing with preconditions: "Levelling the playing fields" ; Protecting the process from violence; Violent challenges to the negotiations; The National Peace Accord; Agreeing on the constitution-making process; Agreeing on the process; Phase one: Establishing binding principles prior to elections; Phase two: Operationalising the binding principles through the Constitution. The making of the constitution: Inclusivity; Popular participation; Confronting the past in order to face the future. Substantive choices in the South African: constitution-making process; The Constitutional State; Government of National Unity; Bill of Rights; Strong Parliament; Institutions supporting democracy; Electoral System; Language and Culture; Federal or regional decentralization; Decentralization and financial matters; Critical observations of the constitution; Detailed drafting; Cost of structures; Impractical provisions. Lessons from the South African negotiations.