Myanmar's leader highlighted the importance of the role of the nation's military in a keynote speech yesterday, dashing hopes he would give more details of the junta's stated plans for democratic reform.
Senior General Than Shwe had been expected to discuss the regime's so-called "road map" to democracy during Armed Forces Day celebrations, held under extremely tight security after last year's event was marred by two bomb blasts.
But instead his address to 7,000 hand-picked troops taking part in an elaborate parade stressed the need to maintain a strong and well-equipped military to defend the nation and guide it towards development.
"Only when a nation possesses a modern defense capability will it be possible to ensure the full protection of sovereignty," he said.
Political commentators in Yangon said the speech fell well short of expectations and shed no further light on when the junta would begin the first step in the road map, a national convention to draft a new constitution.
"It was a hard-line speech reiterating the ruling military's determination to carry on with its peoples' war strategy despite popular demand for genuine democracy," one analyst told reporters.
There is growing speculation in Yangon and the international community that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was taken into detention last May, will be freed from house arrest next month.
Thailand's government has suggested that the junta could announce a date for the national convention at around the time of her release.
The UN human rights envoy to Myanmar, Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, on Friday stepped up pressure on the regime to free political prisoners, saying the road map would likely fail unless they were released.
"You cannot have a national convention if people are threatened to be detained because of what they say, you cannot have a national convention with 1,300 prisoners," Pinheiro said in Geneva.
The US also said Thursday the so-called democracy road map was a sham and that Myanmar had made no progress in human rights or political reform over the past year.
Pinheiro, who last visited Myanmar in November, said he hoped Aung San Suu Kyi would be freed soon, and that when she was, she should be allowed to conduct her political activities freely.
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) suffered a severe clampdown after Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage were attacked by a junta-backed mob and detained on May 30 last year.
The party, which won a landslide victory in 1990 general elections that were never recognized by the ruling military, commemorated yesterday as "Resistance Day" with plans for low-key celebrations.
The NLD anniversary marks the day in 1945 when General Aung San -- Myanmar's independence hero and Aung San Suu Kyi's father -- called on resistance fighters to expel Japanese occupying forces.
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