Myanmar on U.N. Security Council Agenda

Rogelio Pfirter, head of the international chemical weapons watchdog, spkeaks to reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam on Tuesday Sept. 26, 2006. Plirter said Vietnam can play a positve role in convincing North Korea and Myanmar to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. (AP Photo/Tran Van Minh) (Tvm - AP)

UNITED NATIONS -- Myanmar's military government criticized the United States Tuesday for putting it on the Security Council's agenda, and claimed the Southeast Asian nation is steadfastly implementing a seven-step road map to democracy.

The U.S. State Department said it would seek a Security Council resolution demanding freedom for political prisoners in Myanmar and a democratic movement toward national reconciliation, claiming political repression there is damaging stability throughout Southeast Asia.

"To our dismay and frustration, there has been a glaring abuse of the mandate entrusted to the Security Council by its member states by unjustly placing the situation of Myanmar on the agenda of the Security Council by alleging that it poses a threat to regional peace and security," Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

"Nothing could be further from the truth. Myanmar has done nothing that can undermine the peace and security of any country, let alone regional or international peace and security."

While never mentioning the United States by name, he urged other countries to resist the influence of "powerful states" seeking Security Council action against reclusive Myanmar.

"The founders of the U.N. did not intend the world to become a forum where some members with political and economic clout could gang up against a member state and label it for what it is not," Nyan Win said.

The country's National Convention will resume work Oct. 10 on a new constutition. The junta calls the convention the first step in the road map toward democracy that is supposed to lead to free elections _ though no timetable has been set to complete the task.

Myanmar has been without a constitution since 1988, when the existing 1974 charter was suspended after the military violently suppressed mass pro-democracy protests.

"It is indeed a challenging task for the National Convention to reconcile the different points of view raised by various groups, while at the same time trying to strike a balance between the interest of national races on one hand and that of the nation on the other," Nyan Win said.

"The process of transforming the country into a democratic state will move ahead in accordance with the road map."

The junta first convened the National Convention in 1993, but its work was aborted in 1996 after delegates belonging to Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party walked out in protest, claiming the military was manipulating the proceedings.

The convention was resurrected in 2004, though Suu Kyi's party continued not to take part. The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 general election, but the military refused to hand over power, claiming it had to first write a new constitution.

The party and its members have faced constant harassment and Suu Kyi has been in detention since May 2003. The junta's refusal to release her was one reason the party boycotted the resumed meeting.

Nyan Win made no mention of Suu Kyi, although he said Myanmar, also known as Burma, respects human rights and has high hopes for the new U.N. Human Rights Council _ within limits.

"Although we want the council to become an effective tool in the strengthening of the United Nations human rights machinery, we are not giving the council carte blanche," he said.

He also said Myanmar has vowed to eliminate opium production by 2014, adding that from 1996 to 2004, production has declined from 2,560 tons to 292 tons, an 88 percent decrease.