Burma's top general 'will not run in election'
Burma's top leader General Than Shwe will bow out of national elections next month, but his role in the country's political future remains unclear, a south-east Asian diplomat said today.
The diplomat, speaking anonymously on the sidelines of an Asian summit in Vietnam, said Burma's foreign minister Nyan Win told his counterparts that the long-time leader of the military-run country would not be on the ballot during the country's first election in 20 years on November 7.
"He will bow out of the scene," the diplomat said, citing what the Burma official said at an informal dinner yesterday for delegates attending a summit for the Association of South-east Asian Nations.
"He will not be a candidate in the upcoming elections."
It was the first time the reclusive government confirmed that Than Shwe would not participate in the national polls. However, it was earlier believed that he would not run because his name did not appear on the candidates' list.
Than Shwe has never spoken about his future and no officials have ever broached the issue of his retirement or whether he would run in elections.
He is widely expected to have some new role and title afterwards. Many think he could become the next president, which is not an elected position
Reclusive Burma put on a fresh face at an Asian conference in Hanoi, unveiling a redesigned flag and new national name less than two weeks before the long-awaited polling. But many fear the makeover is merely a facade to mask an election already being dubbed a sham.
The election is supposed to be a big step forward in the country's so-called road map to democracy following five decades of military rule.
But critics say the junta has already taken steps to block transparency and ensure that the military remains in power by repressing the country's main opposition party and limiting campaigning.
Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been imprisoned or under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years, is expected to be up for release on November 13, just six days after the election.
But Philippine foreign secretary Alberto Romulo said her fate still remained uncertain.
"We all pressed him to release Aung San Suu Kyi, but he was non-committal," he said, adding that the foreign minister agreed to follow the country's laws.
"I am sceptical about that," Mr Romulo said he told the minister. "She has been sentenced and after that she is re-sentenced again with another, so there's no end to it."
Ms Suu Kyi's party is boycotting the election as undemocratic after winning a landslide victory in 1990 that was dismissed by the military leaders.
That leaves the key junta-backed party as the only strong contender to win the upcoming contest.
United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon warned Burma's junta today that unless it freed political prisoners its election may not be considered legitimate or credible.
Mr Ban said freeing the 2,000-plus political prisoners would help create a "perception that this election will be more inclusive".
He acknowledged that the political prisoners may not be "able to actually participate in the vote, but it will create a favourable political atmosphere which will make this perception better".
"But without releasing all political prisoners then there may certainly be some issue of legitimacy or credibility," he said in an interview before his bilateral meeting with Burma's prime minister General Thein Sein in Hanoi this week.
This is the closest Mr Ban has come to criticising the election after repeatedly taking a diplomatic tone by urging the junta to make the poll more inclusive, fair and credible.
But even his latest comments were tempered by hope that the junta would surprise everybody by making some concessions to the pro-democracy movement in a country that has been ruled by the military since 1962.
