Myanmar completes charter guidelines

Myanmar's military government marched ahead Saturday with its much-criticized plans for a new constitution amid U.S. pressure on the United Nations to condemn the junta's iron-fisted treatment of protesters.

A national convention to draw up guidelines for the new constitution completed its tasks Friday, and was to formally end Monday, delegates said.

Details of the gathering have not been released, but it is the first stage of a so-called road map to democracy implemented by the junta in this Southeast Asian nation to lead to elections at an unspecified date.

Critics call the process a sham because the junta hand-picked most delegates, and because opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi _ who remains under house arrest _ cannot attend.

The convention was wrapping up its work as anti-government protesters scattered into hiding to dodge arrest after a wave of protests over fuel price hikes imposed by the military leadership.

The junta has detained scores of activists involved with the rare displays of public opposition, which began Aug. 19. The government acknowledges detaining about 60 people, but opposition activists say the number is closer to 100. Some have been released.

Some detained activists started a hunger strike Thursday to demand medical treatment for a colleague, who reportedly suffered a broken leg during his arrest Tuesday, according to an associate who insisted on anonymity for fear of official retaliation.

President Bush has urged Myanmar's government to heed international calls to release the activists, while the State Department has said U.S. officials will work to raise the subject of Myanmar at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in September.

First lady Laura Bush called U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday to urge him to condemn the junta's treatment of dissidents and to press for the Security Council to prevent more violence in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

On Aug. 23, Ban called on Myanmar authorities to exercise maximum restraint in responding to protests and encouraged all parties to avoid provocative action, a statement critics of the junta considered weak.

In Geneva, the U.N.'s independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said Friday that he "received allegations that the detainees have been severely beaten and tortured."

Pinheiro also said the crackdown's timing was especially bad in light of the junta's efforts to promote its road map to democracy and an upcoming visit to Myanmar by U.N. Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari.

The next stage in the road map is supposed to be the drafting of the actual constitution, but it is not clear who will be entrusted with the task. The document then would be submitted to a national referendum.

In 1988, public protests over rising rice prices were a prelude to a burst of major demonstrations, violently subdued by the army, that sought an end to the military rule that began in 1962. But the recent protests, at most involving a few hundred people, are nowhere near the scale of those in 1988.