BANGKOK: Military-run Myanmar is headed for devastation and the UN Security Council should address the crisis there, activists and exiled politicians have warned. Repression and poverty were now prevalent in the country formerly known as Burma, where an army crackdown on August 8, 1988, killed hundreds if not thousands of people, activists said at a seminar recently held in the Thai capital.

Scholars, pro-democracy activists and anti-regime groups agreed that the junta’s self-declared “roadmap to democracy” had failed and that conditions in impoverished Myanmar had deteriorated badly.

“The stalled transitional process to democracy and an elusive national conciliation process have prompted early warning signs that Burma is on the verge of devastation,” the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) said in a statement.

The people of Myanmar now suffered from poverty, poor health care, low educational standards, environmental degradation and a general feeling of insecurity, said the NCGUB, a government-in-exile set up in 1990.

Three quarters of people were living below the poverty line.

Pressing problems included ethnic unrest and the mounting harassment and detention of members of the main opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, headed by detained Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

The group also pointed to recent deadly bombings in the capital Yangon and increased tension within the military following the October ouster of prime minister General Khin Nyunt.

The junta had also thumbed its nose at United Nations envoys who have repeatedly sought permission to enter the country, the NCGUB said.

“Given the fact that a homegrown national reconciliation process in Burma is unlikely and the ruling Burmese generals have failed to cooperate with the UN secretary general and his special envoy ... it is time for the UN Security Council to address the situation in Burma,” the group said.

The years since the “8888” people-power movement have seen the military control all aspects of life.

It called on the generals to accept a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and with ethnic groups, to free all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi and her NLD deputy Tin Oo, and to allow all civil organizations to operate freely.

“Political dialogue with equality and freedom is of urgent need in the country for the purpose of democracy, peace and development,” the group said.—AFP