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Burma Leader Promises Democracy



Burma Leader Promises Democracy

 .c The Associated Press  

RANGOON, Burma (AP) - A top Burmese leader has promised a group of American
executives that a multiparty democracy will emerge in the military-controlled
country and said he hoped relations with the United States would improve,
official newspapers reported Sunday. 

Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, a senior member of the ruling military council, was
speaking to members of the Young Presidents Organization visiting Burma. The
newspapers did not say when the meeting took place. 

The general said a national convention drawing up guidelines for a new
constitution had completed 50 percent of its work. 

``The new government that will emerge according to the new constitution will
lead the country to multiparty democracy and a market economy,'' he said. 

The convention, which began its work in 1993, has been in recess since March
1996. Draft provisions already completed would leave decisive power with the
military, which has ruled Burma, also known as Myanmar, since 1962. 

Khin Nyunt told the group, made up of presidents and senior executives of
American companies, the present strain in relations between Burma and the
United States was temporary. 

He expressed regret that the United States had imposed some economic sanctions
on his country and said they had minimal impact. 

The United States has strongly denounced Burma for human rights abuses and the
repression of a pro-democracy movement led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Suu Kyi. 

The military violently put down a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, later
annulled the results of a general election and set up a convention to draft a
constitution under military guidance.