'Postpone the vote'

While the Burmese military junta blithely insisted that its constitutional referendum must go ahead on Saturday, political activists from that nation called for the vote to be postponed.

At a meeting in Bangkok, the Burmese groups called on the international community to pressure the country's military regime to postpone the referendum.

"We are asking the international community to pressure the regime to defer the referendum in order to address the devastation caused by the cyclone," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area), one of several Thailand-based groups working to bring democracy to Burma.

The referendum has already been criticised as a sham, because it merely approves the special military role via a military-sponsored constitution that will be passed through intimidation and rigging of the vote.

On Monday, in the wake of a cyclone that devastated Rangoon, killed an estimated 15,000 people and left a million homeless, the generals announced that the referendum would go ahead, because "people were happy" to be able to vote.

Soe Aung said the military government, which has so far not allowed any international emergency aid into the country, should concentrate on coping with the disaster rather than on pushing ahead with the referendum.

United States first lady Laura Bush, while announcing a $250,000 emergency aid grant to Burma on Monday, accused the junta of not adequately warning the population in advance of the cyclone. (dpa)

"Although they were aware of the threat, Burma's state run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm's path," Mrs Bush said.

Soe Aung agreed with the assessment.

"As we all know, the military regime was too busy preparing this referendum to push ahead, which is very important for them because it will cement their power forever through the constitution, so they didn't pay the cyclone much attention."
(Source-http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=127501)