"...For the past fifty years, military dictators have ruled Burma destroying the economy, abolishing the rule of law, and perpetuating thousands of human rights violations against its own population. The military regime known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regularly enlists child soldiers, uses sexual violence against the civilian population, has forcibly displaced and destroyed over 3,000 ethnic villages, and carries out executions with impunity.1 The state currently holds over 2,000 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and has refused repeated calls for release or trials. The international community?s efforts to both isolate and engage the military junta have failed to produce results. The regime has announced that elections will assuredly be held in 2010 to implement its military-dominated Constitution, which was forcefully approved in May 2008. The Burma Lawyers? Council (BLC) has created a comprehensive analysis of the forthcoming 2010 election, scrutinizing the political will of the regime, the history of elections in Burma, international election standards, the flaws of the 2008 Constitution, and the relevance of international laws. The BLC?s paper also proposes concrete steps for peaceful democratization of Burma on the rule of law and human rights. The following is excerpts from the longer BLC analysis paper, which will be published soon..."...This summary is taken from "LawKa PaLa - Legal Journal on Burma" - No. 34 (December 2009) published by BLC (see the Alternate URL)