N.B. THIS TEXT IS IN A CONSTANT STATE OF UPDATING. CHECK http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/how10.htm FOR THE LATEST VERSION...Introduction: "This guide is not so much an analysis ? political, legal or other -- of the ?roadmap” as an introduction to some of the elements, in particular the National Convention process, which the ?roadmap” is based on. For analyses, see Roadmaps/National Convention in the Online Burma/Myanmar Library. This guide has a limited scope and makes three main points: * The first and most crucial stage of the "roadmap" announced by Gen. Khin Nyunt on 30 August 2003 is the re-launch, scheduled for May 17 2004, of the 1993-1996 National Convention, and there is no indication by Burmese military spokesmen that the resumed Convention will differ substantially in structure or procedure from its earlier form; * The abundant commentaries and documentation on the 1993-1996 National Convention apply equally to this stage of the "roadmap"; * International, regional and national actors should take these into account when assessing the "roadmap" and developing their policies. A frequent comment on the ?roadmap” is that details are lacking. If, however, as seems likely, the reconvened National Convention follows its 1993-1996 pattern, we actually know a great deal about the first, crucial step of the ?roadmap” by way of documentation and commentary. The present guide sets the ?roadmap” within this process, itself a stage in the events which followed the collapse of the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) in 1988, the coming of the SLORC[2], the 1990 elections and their aftermath. The guide: 1) Provides a chronology and documentation of the shifting positions of the Burmese military from 1988 onwards with regard to handing over power to the party which won the elections -- from the 1988 promise of unconditional transfer of power, to the NLD?s apparent exclusion in August 2003 from any authority or responsibility at all deriving from the electoral mandate of 1990; 2) Provides introductions and hyperlinks to a substantial collection of commentaries and documentation on the National Convention process, which the ?roadmap” is intended to complete (something not denied by the SPDC[3]); 3) Recommends that international, regional and national actors recognise the ?roadmap” as an integral part of the National Convention process and that they study the purpose, principles and procedure of the whole process when developing their policies..."