RI HOPES MYANMAR TO HOLD INCLUSIVE ELECTIONS

Jakarta, Feb. 7 (ANTARA) - Indonesia hopes Myanmar will meet its promise to hold inclusive general elections this year, ambassador Sebastianus Sumarsono said here on Saturday.

"To Indonesia one important thing to remember is that a general election could be called successful if it is participated in by the whole people and the Myanmarese government has already promised it," he said on the sidelines of a foreign ministry leadership meeting.

He said the Indonesian government had been actively following the development of the process of democracy being carried out by the Myanmarese government and would always be ready to give support if needed including to share its experience.

"Indonesia has had a long relationship with Myanmar namely since December 1949 or for 60 years," he said.

Asked if the Myanmarese government has set the date for the election Sumarsono said at an Asean foreign ministerial level meeting in Vietnam early this year Myanmarese foreign minister U Nyan Win said that his government was still preparing the law and political parties.

"It is still being processed. It is already finished 60 percent. It will finish in one or two months' time. Three months afterwards will the general election be carried out," he said quoting Nyan Win.

Sumarsono said the Myanmarese foreign minister said that the country would possibly conduct the general election in the middle of the second semester in 2010 or between June and october.

Asked about the chance of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to win in the election Sumarsono said it could not be ascertained yet.

"It cannot be ascertained yet because a group of senior members have expressed their unwillingness to participate in it while a group from the younger generation are willing," he said.

Regarding rumours on the planned release of Aung San Suu Kyie he said he had not much knowledge about it beyond what the media has reported.

The NDL won in the 1990 general elections but the junta would not allow the party to govern.

Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi meanwhile has been under house arrest for 14 of 20 years of her detention.

Her house arrest was extended for another 18 months in August last year after she was declared guilty in connection with the case of a US citizen who had swam to reach her house located besides a lake.

The punishment caused an international uproar as it would make her impossible to participate in the election the military junta promised to hold this year.

The opposition is suspicious about the election which they consider as a mere plan for legitimizing the junta's iron-fist authority.

Myanmarese home affairs minister Maung Oo was reported as saying before local officials in Myanmar last month that Suu Kyi would be released in November.