Eighteen Burmese nationals, including one woman, were arrested today for participating in an illegal demonstration outside the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

The 35-minute demonstration was against the national constitution convention, organised by the Burmese government, which kicked off in Rangoon today.

The protestors arrived at about 12.10pm carrying placards that read: 'we need dialogue', 'free Aung San Suu Kyi', 'free all political prisoners' and 'dialogue or utter devastation'.

The group, who claimed to be members of the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), also rendered songs and chanted slogans calling for democracy.
"We want (Burmese pro democracy leader) Suu Kyi to be released and we want democracy for our country," said their spokesperson Aung Kyaw Moe, who was among those arrested, when met earlier.

DPNS is the second largest party next to the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Suu Kyi. The party is a close ally of the NLD.

DPNS reportedly has some 250,000 members in Burma and according to Kyaw Moe, there are 35 members in Kuala Lumpur.

Warnings ignored

Fifteen minutes into the protest, Pudu police station chief Mohd Asri Mohd Yunus ordered the group to disperse and agreed to give them a 20-minute reprieve.

He told the protestors that they were violating Malaysian law for holding an illegal assembly and action can be taken against them.

Initially the group agreed to disperse, but then later refused to budge despite being warned thrice. Following this, police personnel moved in and arrested them and no untoward incidents were reported.

The detainees are being held at the Kuala Lumpur remand centre in Pudu.

A majority of the protestors are asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) but have yet to be accorded refugee status and thus still face the risk of deportation.

Met later, Burmese embassy first secretary Zaw Tun Oo said the protest was illegal and he "has no idea" why the group wanted to protest against the convention.

"They did not fix any appointment to meet with officials in the embassy," he added

Last month, 164 Burmese nationals, of ethnic Chin origin, were arrested outside the Burmese embassy for protesting against the alleged persecution of their predominantly Christian community by the military regime.

No charges were pressed against them, but those who are found to be without proper travel documents are expected to be deported.

The Burmese military has refused to hand over power to the NLD despite the latter securing a landslide victory in the1990 elections.

The reconvening of the long-postponed convention today is an annual meeting conducted since 1993 with the goal of drafting the constitution.

'Illegitimate convention'

However, Malaysian parliamentary opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, in a statement this afternoon, described the convention as not having 'legitimacy or credibility'.

Among others, he said the event was illegitimate because it had excluded the participation of the NLD and two other political parties, as well as the boycott by political parties, which in total have won 91 percent of the parliamentary seats during the1990 general election.

Lim also urged Asean parliamentarians to unite with a common agenda in disqualifying the military junta from taking over the Asean chair in 2006.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International urged the Burmese government to take this opportunity to draft a new constitution that guarantees human rights for all its citizens.

"In Burma this opportunity has been marred by the ongoing imprisonment of peaceful political activists and the recent arrests of yet more political figures," its deputy Asia director Natalie Hill said in a statement.

Hill was referring to the extended detention of 'prisoner of conscience' U Tin Oo and other opposition leaders and the arrests of seven political activists from the Shan minority.