National constitutions, draft constitutions, amendments and announcements (texts)

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Description: "On this day in 2008, less than one month after over 100,000 people were killed by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, military dictator Senior General Than Shwe announced the promulgation of the 2008 Constitution. Nargis struck the coast of Myanmar on the evening of May 2, 2008, smashing almost all the buildings in the Irrawaddy delta and affecting millions of people, especially in Yangon and Bago regions and Mon and Karen states. The junta, however, decided to proceed with the vote, holding the constitutional referendum in most of Myanmar on May 10 and in the more severely affected areas on May 24, 2008. While people were still in desperate trouble, the regime reported a heavy turnout and said 98.12 percent of eligible voters took part and 92.48 percent voted in favor. The constitution thus earned the satirical name, the Nargis constitution. After refusing to recognize the results of the 1990 general election, which brought a landslide victory to the National League for Democracy (NLD), the military regime took 14 years from 1993 to 2007 to design the constitution which guarantees its political leadership and bars NLD leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president. The first general election since the 1990 poll was held in 2010 based on the 2008 Constitution, which saw the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party winning the vote and taking the office. However, no significant changes could be introduced under both the USDP and NLD, which came to power at the 2015 general election. Military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who was handpicked by his predecessor Than Shwe, seized power from the NLD government in February after the party repeated its electoral victory in the November 2020 general election. Constitutions were scrapped when military chief General Ne Win seized power in 1962 and Gen Saw Maung took power in 1988. However, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing said he would act in line with the 2008 Constitution..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2021-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Lawmakers to hold first meeting on Monday amid new threats of army takeover over alleged poll fraud.
Description: "Myanmar’s newly elected parliament is scheduled to meet for the first time on Monday against the backdrop of a threat by the military to stage a coup over unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in the November 2020 election. On Thursday, the military’s commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing plunged the country into its greatest political crisis since the transition to democracy began in 2008 by threatening to abolish the constitution. “The constitution is the Mother Law. We have to follow the constitution. If the law is not respected or followed, we must abolish it. Even if it is the constitution, we must abolish it,” he said in a speech quoted by the military’s Facebook page. After two days of uncertainty, the military released an official statement on Saturday, apparently backtracking. “The Tatmadaw will defend the 2008 Constitution and only act within the boundary of existing laws,” it said, accusing the media of taking Min Aung Hlaing’s comments out of context. The incident came after a months-long campaign to discredit the November election, despite no firm evidence of wrongdoing. The military’s electoral proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), has demanded a new election supervised by the military, filed nearly 200 complaints, and took the issue to the Supreme Court. Min Aung Hlaing’s comments sent shockwaves through Myanmar, which emerged only from decades of military dictatorship in 2010 and held just its second democratic election in November last year. In both 2015 and 2020, the National League of Democracy (NLD) won landslide victories that delivered it a clear majority in parliament, despite the military automatically receiving 25 percent of the available seats..."
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Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
2021-01-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Armed forces release statement saying remarks by general about political system were misinterpreted
Description: "Myanmar’s armed forces have said they will protect and abide by the country’s constitution and act according to law, amid concerns in the country that the military might attempt to seize power. In an official statement on Saturday, the military said recent remarks by its top general about abolishing the constitution were misinterpreted by media and some organisations. More than a dozen embassies, including the US and EU delegation, urged Myanmar to “adhere to democratic norms” on Friday, joining the UN in a chorus of international concern about a possible coup. The country is just a decade out of nearly 50 years of military rule, with a nascent democracy governed under a junta-authored constitution which dictates power-sharing between the civilian administration and the country’s generals. Advertisement For weeks, the powerful military has alleged widespread voter irregularities in November’s election, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide. Its call for voter list verification ramped up this week, with an army spokesman on Tuesday refusing to rule out the possibility of a military takeover to deal with what he called a political crisis. Fears grew after army chief General Min Aung Hlaing – arguably Myanmar’s most powerful individual – appeared to echo the sentiment on Wednesday, when he said the country’s constitution could be “revoked” under certain circumstances. The newly elected MPs are expected to begin sitting in parliament on 1 February..."
Source/publisher: "The Guardian" (UK)
2021-01-30
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar President U Win Myint on Monday called for a constitution which is the foundation of the establishment of the future democratic federal union complying with democratic principles and standards, the actual situation of the country and the emerging federal union system. Speaking on the occasion of the 73rd Anniversary of Independence Day, U Win Myint stressed that it is important for all ethnic nationals to help each other in close friendship, to have compassion and empathy, to discuss and negotiate, to be free from suspicion, to have mutual respect, understanding and trust as well as unity in establishing the democratic federal union. He believed that a peaceful, modern, developed and prosperous democratic federal union will emerge in the future if all ethnic nationals worked strenuously in unity with firm union spirit. He also stressed that the union government is striving to establish a democratic federal union which has been the aspiration of all ethnic nationals with the intention of achieving the speedy cessation of internal armed conflicts and durable peace. Myanmar became a British colony in the 19th century and regained its independence on Jan. 4 in 1948..."
Source/publisher: "Xinhua" (China)
2021-01-04
Date of entry/update: 2021-01-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: Document containing proposals For the REVISION of the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNION OF BURMA submitted by THE SHAN STATE, translated by Sao Singha. This document was ratified by the Convention, attended by delegates from the entire Shan State, which was held in Taunggyi on Saturday, 25th of February, 1961.
Creator/author: Trans. Sao Singha
Source/publisher: Shan State Steering Committee
1961-02-25
Date of entry/update: 2017-05-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 506.26 KB
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Source/publisher: Government of the Union of Burma
1974-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2016-12-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 499.28 KB
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Source/publisher: Constituent Assembly of Burma
1947-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2016-12-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 514.54 KB
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Description: Provisional English title. ၂၀၀၈ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေကိုပြင်ဆင်သည့်ဥပဒေကြမ်းအတည်ပြုရေး ပြည်လုံးကျွတ်ဆန္ဒခံယူပွဲဥပဒေကို ပြင်ဆင်သည့်ဥပဒေ
Source/publisher: Pyidaungsu Hluttaw via Pyithu Hluttaw Website
2015-06-25
Date of entry/update: 2015-07-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 30.56 KB
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Description: Provisional English title... A Pyithu Hluttaw website link is used as an alternate link to this law but it does not always work. နိုင်ငံတော်ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေဆိုင်ရာခုံရုံးဥပဒေကို ဒုတိယအကြိမ်ပြင်ဆင်သည့်ဥပဒေ
Source/publisher: Pyidaungsu Hluttaw via Pyithu Hluttaw Website
2014-11-05
Date of entry/update: 2015-02-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 45.5 KB
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Description: Provisional English title... A Pyithu Hluttaw website link is used as an alternate link to this law but it does not always work. ၂၀၀၈ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေကိုပြင်ဆင်သည့်ဥပဒေကြမ်းအတည်ပြုရေး ပြည်လုံးကျွတ်ဆန္ဒခံယူပွဲဥပဒေ
Source/publisher: Pyidaungsu Hluttaw via Pyithu Hluttaw Website
2015-02-10
Date of entry/update: 2015-02-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 115.17 KB
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Description: Printed by Printing and Publishing Corporation Rangoon...Word version
Source/publisher: Printed by Printing and Publishing Corporation Rangoon
1974-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2014-03-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : doc
Size: 103 KB
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Description: န.အ.ဖ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေမူကြမ်းအတည်ပြုရေး ပြည်လုံးကျွတ်ဆန္ဒခံယူပွဲဥပဒေ
Source/publisher: State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
2008-02-26
Date of entry/update: 2013-09-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 818.77 KB 163.75 KB
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Description: 1. Letter from the Government of India to the Secretary of state for India, No. 1 (Reforms), dated 25th March, 1920: Enclosures in No. 1.: 1. Resolution by tbe Government of Burma, No. 1 L—7, dated 17th December, 1918, publishing for discussion and criticism a provisional scheme of reform ... Annexures to Enclosure No. 1. 1. Budget Committee under the proposed scheme; 2. (1) Board for Home Affairs; (2) Board of Revenue and Finance; (3) Board of Development ; (4) Board of Local Self-Government... 3. Summary of Recommendations..... 2. Government of Burma?s first scheme.: Letter from the Government of Burma to the Government of India, No. 21—1—L—1. dated 2 June, 1919.... Annexures to Enclosure No. 2. 1. Speech by Sir Reginald Craddock, Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, 19th April, 1919, (Extract); 2. Proposed grouping of towns for purpose of representation on the Burma Legislative Council; 3. Budget Committee under the proposed scheme; 4. (1) Board for Home Affairs... (2) Board of Revenue and Finance; (3) Board of Development; (4) Board of Local Self-Govermnent ….. 3. Criticism by the Government of India of the first scheme of the Government of Burma. Letter from the Government of India to the Government of Burma, No. 2425, dated 18th November, 1919; 4. Second scheme of the Government of Burma; Letter from the Government of Burma to the Government of India, No. 59 T—1—L—8, dated 22nd January, 1920 .
Source/publisher: Government of India via His Majesty?s Stationary Office
1920-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2012-09-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.41 MB
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Description: Commentary and text. This text, based on the draft adopted by the Democratic Alliance of Burma (DAB) in 1993, was adopted by the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) as its First Draft, at the Fourth Conference of the NCUB, May 16-23, 1996..." We the peoples of the Federal Republic of the Union of Burma, with complete faith in the universal principles of freedom, equality and justice, do hereby adopt this Constitution for the Federal Republic of the Union of Burma in order to establish a multi-national country that is peaceful, prosperous, and enduring. In the land of this Federal Union, many different nationalities have lived, each with their own sovereignty and independence, ever since ancient times. Although each nationality lived independently for most of its history, they all fell under the long occupation and servitude of the British colonialists. In order to regain its own freedom more quickly, each nationality joined with the others so as to obtain independence from the colonial power together, and they thus formed a Federal Union at the Panglong Conference in the year 1947. The Conference unanimously adopted the Panglong Agreement which guaranteed ethnic equality, self-determination, and democratic rights. Although the Agreement promised that the new states of the union could govern themselves, those in power failed to implement the Agreement. Civil war ensued for more than half a century, during which countless lives were sacrificed and natural resources wasted. Since 1962, the peoples of Burma have suffered under a series of dictatorial regimes with different names but a common history of denying democratic rights, human rights, and the rights of self-determination for ethnic nationalities who joined the Union as equal partners in 1947. We shall never forget the heart-breaking experiences that the people of the Federal Union have had to endure. In order to prevent a recurrence of the mistakes of the past and to realize the future aspirations of all our peoples, we based this Constitution on the fundamental principles of political equality for all ethnic nationalities, the rights of self-determination for all member states of the Federal Union,and the democratic rights for all citizens. This Constitution further provides guarantees for human rights and gender equality; minority rights for all religious and ethnic groups; and the separation of politics and religion. In order to prevent the recurrence of military dictatorship, this Constitution enshrines civilian control of the armed forces. We establish this Constitution so as to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and future generations. Banishing all the past outrages, shattering the dark, shining the light, and establishing the dignity of the Federal Union among the family of nations, this Constitution shall become the highest law of the Federal Republic of the Union of Burma. We the peoples of the Republic of the Federal Union of Burma, with complete faith in the universal principles of freedom, equality and justice, do hereby adopt this Constitution for the Federal Republic of the Union of Burma in order to establish a multi-national country that is peaceful, prosperous, and enduring. In the land of this Federal Union, many different nationalities have lived, each with their own sovereignty and independence, ever since ancient times. Although each nationality lived independently for most of its history, they all fell under the long occupation and servitude of the British colonialists. In order to gain its own freedom more quickly, each nationality joined with the others so as to obtain independence from the colonial power together, and thus they formed a federal union at the Panglong Conference in the year 1947. The Conference unanimously adopted the Panglong Agreement which guaranteed ethnic equality, self-determination, and democratic rights. Although the Agreement promised that the states of the union could govern themselves, those in power failed to implement the Agreement. Civil war ensued for more than half a century, during which countless lives were sacrificed and natural resources wasted. Since 1962, the peoples of Burma have suffered under a series of dictatorial regimes with different names but a common history of denying democratic rights, human rights, and the rights of self-determination for ethnic nationalities who joined the Union as equal partners in 1947. We shall never forget the heart-breaking experiences that the people of the Federal Union have had to endure. In order to prevent a recurrence of the mistakes of the past and to realize the future aspirations of all our peoples, we based this Constitution on the fundamental principles of political equality for all ethnic nationalities, the rights of self-determination for all member states of the Federal Union; and the democratic rights for all citizens. This Constitution further provides guarantees for human rights and gender equality; minority rights for all religious and ethnic groups; and the separation of politics and religion. In order to prevent the recurrence of military dictatorship, this Constitution enshrines civilian control of the armed forces. We establish this Constitution so as to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and future generations. Banishing all the past outrages, shattering the dark, shining the light, and establishing the dignity of the Federal Union among the family of nations, this Constitution shall become the highest law of the Republic of the Federal Union of Burma..."
Source/publisher: Ethnic Nationalities Council
2006-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 170.71 KB 684.91 KB
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Description: The official bilingual version...The date given here is the date of printing. The date of adoption of the Constitution is 29 May 2008
Source/publisher: State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
2008-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-11-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (ျမန္မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 698.01 KB
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Description: Part One: Burmese Section:ပြည်နယ်များ၏ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံအခြေခံဥပဒေရေးဆွဲရေးလုပ်ငန်းစဉ်နှင့်ပတ်သတ်သောအစီရင်ခံစာ (ဆလိုင်းလျန်မှုန်းဆာခေါင်း) Part Two: English Section 1.Introduction:(i)Foreword (Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe)(ii)Report on State Constitutions Drafting Process(Lian H. Sakhong) 2.Federalism, State Constitutions and Self-Determination:(i)Federalism, State Constitutions and Ethnic Self-Determination (Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe)(ii)Burma:State Constitutions and the Challenges Facing the Ethnic Nationalities (Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe) 3.The Role of State Constitutions in the Protection of Nationality and Monitority Rights:Lessons From Other Countries (i)Australian Federalism, State Constitutions and the Protection of minority Rights (Cheryl Saunders)(ii)Federalism, Diversity and Minority Rights: What can we learn from India (Yogendra Yadav) (iii)Nigeria?sExperience in Managing the Challenges of Ethnic and Religious Diversity through Constitutional Provisions (Otive Igbuzor) 4.American Model Of State Constitutions:(i)Model State Constitution 5.German Model Of Local Governments: (i)Federalism and Local Self-Governmennt in Germany (Harald Hofmann)
Creator/author: Chao-Tzang Yawnghwe, Lian H.Sakhong
Source/publisher: ENC "PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE: Towards Federal Union of Burma [Series No.5]"
2003-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-09-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: အင်္ဂလိပ်ဘာသာ/မြန်မာဘာသာ
Format : pdf
Size: 942.6 KB
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Description: "An Act to make further provision for the government of Burma. [2nd August 1935.] Be it enacted by the King?s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:- PART I. INTRODUCTORY 1. This Act may be cited as the Government of Burma Act, 1935. 2. (1) All rights, authority and jurisdiction heretofore belonging to His Majesty the King, Emperor of India, which appertain or are incidental to the government of the territories in Burma for the time being vested in him and all rights, authority and jurisdiction exercisable by him by treaty, grant, usage, sufferance or otherwise in, or in relation to, any other territories in Burma, are exercisable by His Majesty, except in so far as may be otherwise provided by or under this Act, or as may be otherwise directed by His Majesty. (2) The said rights, authority and jurisdiction shall include any rights, authority or jurisdiction heretofore exercisable in relation to any territories in Burma by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of State in Council, the Governor-General of India, the Governor-General of Indian in Council, the Governor of Burma or the Local Government of Burma, whether by delegation from His Majesty or otherwise..."
Source/publisher: HMSO
1935-08-02
Date of entry/update: 2010-03-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 406.69 KB
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Description: The official English version. The date given here is the date of printing. The date of adoption of the Constitution is 29 May 2008
Source/publisher: State Peace and Development Council
2008-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-10-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 748.41 KB
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Source/publisher: National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB)- Burma Fund
2008-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-04-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 552.38 KB
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Description: The official Burmese version...The Alternate URL contains a correction to Article 436a.
Source/publisher: State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
2008-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2008-03-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 457.85 KB 26.58 KB
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Description: "...it is most appropriate to transform the administration of Tatmadaw into democratic administration of the people. Thus, in accordance with the forthcoming State Constitution, the multi-party democracy general elections will be held in 2010...Approval of the Constitution draft will be sought in a National Referendum to be held in May 2008... In accordance with the forthcoming State Constitution, the multi-party democracy general elections will be held in 2010...NAY PYI TAW, 10 Feb—The State Peace and Development Council of the Union of Myanmar issued Announcement Nos 1/2008 and 2/2008 yesterday. The following is the full text of the announcements—..."
Source/publisher: "The New Light of Myanmar"
2008-02-11
Date of entry/update: 2008-02-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 285.26 KB
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Description: The 15 chapters of principles adopted by the National Convention which the SPDC has said will form the basis of a new constitution.
Source/publisher: "The New Light of Myanmar" via Khin Kyaw Han
2007-09-10
Date of entry/update: 2007-10-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese
Format : pdf
Size: 1.03 MB
Local URL:
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Description: The original chapters on Fundamental Principles and Detailed Basic Principles adopted by the National Convention These chapters, 1. State fundamental principles; 2. State Structure; 3. Head of State; 4. Legislature; 5. Executive; 6. Judiciary were adopted by the National Convention between 1993 and 1996. In 2007, in the process of completing the National Convention, some changes were made to the original versions and incorporated into the document issued as ?Fundamental Principles and Detailed Basic Principles” (Adopted by the National Convention), online at http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs4/DBP-KKH-2.pdf For the record, and in case anyone wants to compare the versions, they are presented here, along with the section on Self-Administered Divisions and Self-Administered Zones which was not allocated to a specific chapter. Sources: ?The New Light of Myanmar” -- see http://www.burmalibrary.org/show.php?cat=1314&lo=d&sl=0
Source/publisher: "The New Lilght of Myanmar"
1996-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2007-10-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 322.71 KB
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Description: The 15 chapters of principles adopted by the National Convention which the SPDC has said will form the basis of a new constitution.
Source/publisher: "The New Light of Myanmar" via Khin Kyaw Han
2007-09-10
Date of entry/update: 2007-09-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 545.72 KB
Local URL:
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Source/publisher: Government of the Union of Burma
1974-01-03
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 150.08 KB
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Description: html version plus a facsimile version
Source/publisher: Constituent Assembly of Burma
1947-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.72 MB
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