Burma's military junta yesterday arrested a close aide to the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Myo Nyunt, a National League for Democracy youth member, added to the toll in detention after more than 20 other party activists were held as they campaigned against the forthcoming constitutional referendum.
The arrests came as the UN human rights investigator for Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, dismissed the May 10 referendum that is part of the isolated regime's seven-point "road map to democracy".
"The government continues detaining people and repressing people who are trying to do some campaigning for a no in the referendum," said Pinheiro. "How can you have a referendum when you make repression against those that are intending to say 'no'? This is completely surreal."
The proposed 194-page constitution, finalised in February but only revealed in leaks last month, bars Suu Kyi, 62, from the political process because she was married to a foreigner, the late Michael Aris, a Briton.
Critics of the draft constitution, which took 14 years to write, maintain it is designed to perpetuate the military's 46-year grip on power. The NLD has urged voters to reject the document despite threats of imprisonment for those campaigning against it.
Myo Nyunt was taken from his home near Rangoon; the other activists were arrested in the city of Sittwe as they staged a rally against the referendum, according to an NLD spokesman, Nyan Win.
The NLD opposes the constitution as it was drafted under the military's control, and demanded that international observers must be allowed to monitor the poll if it is to have a shred of credibility.
Pinheiro echoed the call, saying the poll would be reduced to window dressing without independent oversight, even though the junta has already rebuffed the offer of help from the UN special Burma envoy, Ibrahim Gambari.
The junta has refused to give Pinheiro a visa to return to Burma following his last trip in November, when he said he believed at least 31 pro-democracy demonstrators were killed when troops opened fire, more than double the official figure.
