BANGKOK: Democracy is still nowhere in sight in Myanmar sixteen years after the bloodiest massacre of unarmed demonstrators in a mass uprising of students - who took to the streets of Yangon and other major cities on August 8, 1988 - to protest against decades of military rule and severe economic mismanagement by the generals.

While the region's premier grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, holds the key to instituting change in Myanmar - a fellow ASEAN member - many, however, are doubtful whether the Myanmar junta will allow a degree of democratic opening and release Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi currently under house detention.

For Myanmar's democracy movement, August 8 - dubbed 8.8.88 - has become the most important date of the year. Fed up with 26 years of military rule and corruption, on August 8, 1988, activists in Myanmar began a protest that quickly swelled into a mass uprising with millions participating in every city throughout the country.

But Myanmar's then-dictator, Ne Win - who assumed power in 1962 - retaliated. He ordered the military to 'shoot to kill' and troops mowed down between 3,000 and 10,000 unarmed demonstrators.

Soldiers even stormed Yangon's hospitals to kill injured protesters, and were seen cremating the wounded along with the dead. Thousands more were arrested and many remain behind bars, till today, merely for voicing their opposition.

Since then, Myanmar has been ruled by a military junta, which ironically calls itself, now, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). After the August 8 shootings, the junta abolished the 1974 constitution and issued martial law decrees that forbid any public criticism of the military and public gatherings of more than five people.

At the same time, it began to permit the registration of political parties in preparation for promised multi-party elections. But the elections two years later in 1990 proved to be a big farce.

That year, Aung San Suu Kyi was first placed under house arrest by the military junta soon after her National League of Democracy (NLD) won the majority of seats in nation-wide polls.

In 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her non- violent struggle for democracy and human rights. She was released briefly in 1995, but her movements outside the capital Yangon were restricted by the junta.

But Suu Kyi has spent the last year in detention after pro- government thugs attacked her convoy, and her party has since endured a renewed crackdown. "Instead of releasing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues from detention as promised to ASEAN, the SPDC continues to detain them and prevent their party, the NLD from re-opening their offices outside Rangoon," said Gothom Arya, secretary-general of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia).

"As a result, of the regime's misbehaviour and disregard of international norms, ASEAN's credibility and international standing has suffered," added Gothom. Gothom spoke to reporters after he presented representatives of the Thai Foreign Ministry with an open letter signed by human rights organizations from the region, East Asia, Europe and North America.

Copies of the letter, addressed to ASEAN heads of government, were delivered by an activists' caravan to ASEAN embassies in Bangkok on Friday. Myanmar joined the club in 1997 despite misgivings by some governments and activists in and out of the region, but ASEAN countries said membership would allow their 'constructive engagement' policy to slowly encourage Yangon to open up its political system.

In a bid to ward of international criticism, the junta last August announced what they called a road map towards democracy. On May 17, the junta restarted a national convention to draw up a new constitution that they said would lead to free and fair elections in the country.

But its credibility has been criticized because of the absence of Suu Kyi's NLD. "The SPDC-organized a National Convention to draft a new constitution degenerated into a mass arrest that suppressed the expression of legitimate concerns," said Gothom in the open letter, obtained by IPS.

This point, too, has also been brought up by the European Union. The EU is insistent that Myanmar be barred from the Asia-Europe Meeting scheduled in October in Vietnam and has called the democracy road map a sham without the release of Suu Kyi.

Meanwhile, Thailand is working frantically behind the scenes to patch up the junta's damaged relations with the rest of the world. The government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is planning multinational talks on Burma, in Bangkok, and wants the junta to attend.

"We are ready to host but we want Myanmar to attend," Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters at the sidelines of a South-South economic conference last fortnight.

"If Myanmar does not come, it is not useful," he added. But 'The Nation' daily in its editorial commemorating the August 8 anniversary said ASEAN's hands were tied by virtue of "having embraced Myanmar."

"To protect ASEAN solidarity, the grouping has had to support Myanmar in both regional and international forums. There is no other way," said the daily. Forum-Asia's Gothom, however, put it more bluntly.

"The regime has become a millstone around ASEAN'S neck by perpetuating direct threats against regional security and jeopardizing ASEAN's credibility and relations with the international community." -Dawn/The Inter Press News Service.