Myanmar vows to go ahead with 'road map' to democracy

Military-run Myanmar claimed Friday it was taking another step on its "road map" to democracy by drafting a new charter, and accused the United States of training monks who led protests last month.
The junta named 54 people to a committee tasked with writing a new constitution, following more than a decade of talks on the guidelines for the charter, the official New Light of Myanmar paper said. The announcement came as US President George W. Bush was Friday set to announce new sanctions against the regime over its crackdown on peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks in late September, when at least 13 people were killed and 3,000 detained.
Bush had warned of additional action "if the Burmese regime did not end its repression," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, referring to Myanmar's former name of Burma. "Unfortunately the regime has not responded to the calls of the international community," he said.
Anti-junta rallies began in August following a massive hike in fuel prices and snowballed into the biggest challenge to the iron-fisted regime in nearly two decades.
In the wake of the violence, the United States and the European Union tightened sanctions on the junta while the United Nations is pressuring the regime to open talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest. US lawmakers have proposed even tougher sanctions that would squeeze oil giant Chevron to pull its investment in a lucrative natural gas project in Myanmar.
UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari is travelling around Asia to build regional pressure on the junta. He called Thursday for a carrot-and-stick approach, saying that in addition to tough action the regime should be offered incentives to reform.
But the state newspaper Friday lashed out at the United States, accusing Washington of training monks and forcing them to stage the protests against the government.
"The embassy of a big power secretly gave training courses to young monks and novices," the paper said. A Yangon-based diplomat said the junta's formation of the charter committee was "a gesture" aimed at defusing the global pressure on the military government.
Under the regime's "road map" to democracy, the new constitution is to be voted on by the public in a referendum, with the process eventually leading to elections. The formation of the charter committee followed the conclusion of 14 years of talks in early September on drafting guidelines for a new constitution. But the international community branded the charter talks a sham because the junta kept Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), out of the process.