Myanmar's junta chief Than Shwe has vowed in his first public speech since the regime's bloody crackdown on protests to go ahead with the country's "road map" to democracy.
YANGON: Myanmar's junta chief Than Shwe has vowed in his first public speech since the regime's bloody crackdown on protests to go ahead with the country's "road map" to democracy, state media said on Saturday.
Senior General Than Shwe also said the military had "always safeguarded the country" against any danger to the national interest, the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted him as saying in an address on Friday.
It was his first public speech, delivered to a pro-junta civil group, since the deadly crackdown on protests in Yangon in late September.
The crackdown sparked global outrage and led the United States and the European Union to tighten sanctions against the regime.
Under the junta's "road map" to democracy, Myanmar will adopt a constitution in a referendum, which, in theory, would eventually lead to free elections in a country which has been ruled by the military since 1962.
In his speech Than Shwe said the "road map" was "the only means to smooth transition towards a new state," the paper said.
In early September, the junta ended 14 years of talks to draft guidelines for a new constitution.
But the US, EU and the UN have dismissed the lengthy proceedings as a sham due to the absence of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party.
The military has not laid out a timeline for elections, and analysts have said the new charter would only serve to formalise the junta's role in government.
The crackdown ended protests which began in August over a sudden hike in fuel prices and snowballed into the biggest anti-government demonstrations in nearly 20 years.
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