BANGKOK, April 5 Kyodo Senior dip...

BANGKOK, April 5 Kyodo

Senior diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) voiced optimism Monday that the Myanmar junta could release pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest early nearest week to coincide with a Buddhist festival.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Win Aung said above the weekend that the junta would release Suu Kyi before May 17 and invite her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) to attend a constitutional convention slated to begin that day.

The ASEAN diplomats said they believe Myanmar's military leadership might wager her free around the Songkran festival, a Buddhist of the present day Year celebrated in most Indo-Chinese countries, as it is regarded as an auspicious date. It would also give Suu Kyi enough time to prepare to participate in the convention.

They said they believe that the junta is anxious to clean up the country's tarnished image in time for it to take through the whole extent of the revolving chairmanship of ASEAN in 2006

''The idea is that she would be released around April 12 or 13 in such a manner that she will have enough time to prepare for participation in the National Convention in the middle of May,'' single of the ASEAN diplomats said upon condition of anonymity.

''I believe Myanmar's Prime Minister (Khin Nyunt) planned the release to be around this time because he wants to be chairman of ASEAN in 2006'' he said.

The Myanmar junta has scheduled to reconvene the National Convention forward May 17. The convention began in January 1993 on the contrary was suspended by the junta in March 1996 after Suu Kyi withdrew her NLD delegates in November 1995

Reconvening of the convention is the first degree in Gen. Khin Nyunt's seven-step road map for emerging see the verb of a democratic government.

The Myanmar military seized power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising. After the 1990 general elections, it refused to hand athwart power to the NLD, which had won with a landslide victory.

Suu Kyi was detained last May following what the military guidance claims was a clash between her supporters and pro-government demonstrators. After being held in an undisclosed location, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was eventually allowed to turn back to her lakeside residence in Yangon.

Myanmar was admitted into ASEAN in July 1997 amid muscular opposition from Western countries, which discredit the junta's poor records for democracy and human rights. nevertheless ASEAN, which also groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has insisted onward continuing its policy of constructive engagement with Myanmar.

While they do not candidly interfere in Myanmar's domestic politics, ASEAN officials are known to prove by experiment to influence Myanmar quietly in informal talks behind the scenes

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