Myanmar law group says opposition r

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Myanmar law group says opposition right to call "emergency" parliament

Thu 17 Sep 98 - 04:32 GMT

BANGKOK, Sept 17 (AFP) - A Myanmar law group said Thursday the National
League for Democracy (NLD)
opposition party was within its rights to call an "emergency" sitting of
parliament in defiance of the junta's warnings.

The Burma Lawyers Council said the situation in Myanmar put the country in a
"state of emergency" according to international law, and the convention of a
people's assembly was a valid move which "would have full legal effect."

"If the People's Assembly were convened in Burma, the Burmese MPs would hold
full authority. It is highly likely
that this would be recognised by the people of Burma," the council said in a
statement received here. "Legislative resolutions made by the People's
Assembly would have legal effect in Burma."

Myanmar's main opposition party Wednesday announced the formation of a
10-member "representative committee" to implement its decision to convene a
parliament of politicians elected in the 1990 general elections. The NLD
under Aung San Suu Kyi won the elections in a landslide but the ruling
military council has refused to recognise the result.

 "The representative committee has been formed to represent all candidates
who won seats in the 1990 general
 elections," an NLD statement said.

NLD chairman Aung Shwe was named head of the 10-member committee, of which
party general secretary and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was a
member.

The NLD took 382 of a possible 485 seats in the poll, but military
authorities have still to acknowledge the result.

The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) contends that a new
state constitution needed to be put in place before handing over power which
they took in a 1988 coup.

According to the NLD's statement, the committee would carry out the mandate
of 251 of the parliamentarians
remaining from the original of 485.

The latest move by the NLD came following unheeded calls for the military
authorities to convene parliament as
promised, the statement said. "We shall go ahead with our decision to
convene the parliament despite the fact that the military junta have been
arresting our MPs as well as those of the ethnic minority parties to prevent
the convening of such parliament," the NLD said.

It said more than 800 of its members, including 195 MPs have already been
arrested.

"It is very clear that the military authorities are doing their utmost to
see that parliament is not convened," the NLD said, adding that political,
economic and social difficulties "can never be solved by these wholesale
arrests."

The statement said the committee's first meeting, held late Wednesday,
"aopted resolutions," but it did not elaborate.

In a recent statement from a senior junta official said the opposition
members had not been arrested and had merely been invited for a political
discussion and were being accommodated in government guesthouses.


AFP 1998