Myanmar says internal security 'at risk'

Aung San Suu Kyi's party has called for a peaceful reconciliation with the military government

YANGON, Myanmar -- After more than a year of failed talks with the pro-democracy opposition, Myanmar's military government has urged its people to work with armed forces to fight off what it calls internal threats to stability.

Military leader General Than Shwe called on the people to build a "disciplined" nation in his annual Union Day message on Tuesday, which was read out by a ruling party official at a rally in the capital Yangon.

As part of his message he denounced unspecified "destructionists from inside and outside the nation, who are disturbing the state's stability, peace, modernization and development," but stopped short of charging the opposition for sowing discord in the country.

The Union Day is the anniversary of a deal between Myanmar's main ethnic groups in 1947 that paved the way for independence of what was then Burma from Britain.

Government's celebrations were held at the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, which towers over central Yangon. Around 15,000 people from government-linked organizations and Myanmar's ethnic groups turned up to hear Than Shwe's message, according to Reuters news reports.

The military traditionally uses the occasion to slam the opposition but observers this year said the message was not as abrasive as in the past.

Still, they said the tone was less conciliatory than a year ago, when U.N.-brokered talks between the military and Suu Kyi's party had just begun.

Observers said the level of criticism in this years message could be a reflection of the frustration on the part of the government due to difficulty in the dialogue.

The government has released some political prisoners and allowed the League to reopen some offices, but the opposition has shown frustration over the slow pace of the talks.

Reconciliation calls

The National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, for its part, called for peaceful reconciliation with the country's military rulers.

The NLD held a separate ceremony marking Union Day, calling for reconciliation with the junta.

"What we are having is a political problem and we should solve it by political methods," League Chairman Aung Shwe said in a speech to some 500 party faithful and foreign diplomats, according to Reuters.

The event was held at the party's headquarters in Yangon and attended by members of ethnic groups and U.N. special human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.

Pinheiro is in the country to assess human rights progress for a report to the world body. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said some 1,500 political prisoners still languish in Myanmar's jails.

Suu Kyi, who led the League to a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to govern and was consequently placed under house arrest, was not present at the ceremony.

Federal state

Major ethnic groups, on the other hand, used Union Day to issue a statement calling for a federal state.

"We honestly believe that it is more crucial for non-disintegration of the Union to practice a genuine federal system rather than controlling the Union by the strength of the armed forces," the group said in a statement received by Reuters news agency.

"Lessons should be taken from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, which were controlled by a single-party system," it said.

Myanmar's generals, in power since the early 1960s, have shrugged off Western criticism of military rule, arguing a strong hand is vital to hold the ethnically diverse country together.