Thai talks on Burma 'road map'

By Larry Jagan
BBC Burma analyst

Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung is meeting his Thai counterpart in Bangkok to discuss Thailand's plans for greater democracy in Burma.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said that Burma's military rulers would be asked to devise their own plan for democracy - which should involve liberalisation of the economy, drawing up a constitution and holding free multi-party elections.

The two ministers will be discussing Thailand's road map proposals

Thailand has offered to host an international forum to help flesh out what it calls the "road map" to national reconciliation.

The Thai minister believes he can help break Burma's political impasse, but so far the Burmese have been lukewarm to Thailand's proposals.

Few details have been made public, but Thai government officials admit the road map is more of a working concept than a concrete plan.

Surakiart Sathirathai told the BBC that he did not expect his Burmese counterpart to agree to the set of proposals he had in mind, but was confident that Burma's top generals would respond favourably when they knew more about the details of the Thai initiative.

Bangkok also hopes Win Aung will also be able to say when the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will be released.

Until she is, there is little likelihood that the dialogue process between the pro-democracy opposition and the military rulers can resume, and in that time any notions of a road map are almost irrelevant.

Thailand seems to have been stung into action by the prospect of the US and Europe taking stiffer economic sanctions against Rangoon if Aung San Suu Kyi is not released from detention soon.

Bangkok fears a deterioration in Burma's political situation will result in more refugees flooding across the border, seeking political freedom and employment.

Officials estimate that there is already more than a million Burmese illegal workers in Thailand.