U.N. pressure on Myanmar amid talks
From CNN Correspondent Stan Grant
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is urging southeast Asian nations to pressure Myanmar to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The request comes as hundreds of delegates attend a military-ruled constitutional convention in Yangon.
Aung San Sui Kyi, the figurehead of Myanmar's democracy movement, is still under house arrest and cannot attend.
Her National League for Democracy party is boycotting the process, which aims to establish a new constitution for the country.
Annan has said the convention, which opened Monday, was not credible without Myanmar's top democracy activist present.
The Myanmar government remains unmoved, however.
"We want to ensure that nothing disturbs the national convention," U-Khin Maung Win, Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister, told CNN.
"That is why peace and stability has been so important. In fact, we have been in contact with the NLD and with her and we have explained to [Aung San Suu Kyi], why at the present moment, we need to maintain the status quo."
Aung San Suu Kyi, 58, was put under house arrest for the first time in 1989 and was not released until 1995.
Since then she has been placed under house arrest several times.
Most recently, officials detained the pro-democracy leader last May in an undisclosed location after a bloody clash between her supporters and a pro-government group.
She was returned to her home in August.
The military has ruled the impoverished Southeast Asian nation since 1962, with the current regime of generals holding power since 1988.
The government remains largely isolated.
"Calling Myanmar an "extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security interests, Washington on Monday placed another year of trade and investment sanctions on the nation, citing charges of human rights violations.
The European Union and Japan have also either imposed sanctions or are withholding aid from Yangon.
Few believe the military regime will be prepared to relinquish control easily after a 1990 election victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD was ignored.
Rather than honor the landslide result, the military rulers imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi and her fellow leaders and implemented the so-called seven-step constitutional process.
Myanmar's military leadership has called the convention a roadmap to democracy, and although observers have branded the generals the biggest roadblock to free elections, hopes are still high.
"What I feel is that, credibility aside, this is the first step in the process towards change," political analyst Ma Thanegi says.
"This convention is not something that is going to bring a big or sudden change. That would be too much to hope for."
CNN's crew in Yangon has been barred from attending the convention in a sign of the secrecy and paranoia that grips the country.
Most delegates have been hand picked and very few of the seats are taken up by Myanmar's political parties.
Democracy activists say the convention is nothing more than a rubber stamp to maintain military rule.
The international community is watching closely and the U.S. is urging the military rulers to reconsider their hard line stance and re-open talks with the NLD.
