YANGON—Burma's military government has rejected a United Nations offer of observers for May's constitutional referendum and elections in 2010, redoubling concerns about the freedom and fairness of both polls.
"Holding the referendum for the constitution is within the State sovereignty," official newspapers on Sunday quoted referendum commissioner Thaung Nyunt as telling visiting U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
"Arrangements have been made for the eligible voters to cast their votes freely," he added, squashing any hopes of the international community that independent observers would be allowed in to monitor the plebiscite.
He also spurned Gambari's offer of U.N. "technical assistance", saying the former Burma's military had enough experience with running elections.
The last time it did so, in 1990, it ignored the result when opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won more than 80 percent of the vote.
The latest rejection was not unexpected, but diplomats said it signaled the end of whatever small desire the generals had to compromise amid worldwide outrage at September's bloody crackdown on the biggest pro-democracy protests in 20 years.
"It shows the regime has lost its appetite for cooperating with the U.N.," an Asian diplomat, who did not want to be named, said.
The junta announced its plans for a referendum and elections last month as part of a seven-step "roadmap to democracy" that most Western governments have dismissed as a blueprint for the generals keeping their grip on power.
Gambari, who is making his third trip to the Southeast Asian nation since the September protests, is expected to hold his second meeting with Information Minister Kyaw Hsan on Sunday.
He met detained Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for 90 minutes on Saturday, but details of their discussions have not been revealed. Gambari is not expected to travel to the new capital, Naypyidaw, to see junta supremo Than Shwe.
