New Delhi - The New York based Human Rights Watch said it does not endorse the Burmese junta's referendum results as it falls short of any form of existing standards and urged the international community including the United Nations to reject it.
"Human Rights Watch does not endorse the results of the referendum," David Scott Mathieson, HRW's Burma consultant told Mizzima.
"We don't think other members of the international community should [endorse]. Endorsing the [junta's] process is endorsing military rule [in Burma ]."
But Burma 's military rulers said the people's overwhelming support of the draft constitution in the referendum in May shows that the people have given the mandate to the constitution.
And that the result of the referendum wipes out the mandate claimed by the opposition party - the National League for Democracy – that won a landslide victory in Burma 's last free and fair general election in 1990.
The junta announced that the draft constitution was supported by 92.48 percent of the total eligible voters in Burma in a referendum, which critics said was not 'Free and Fair.'
The junta's statement, which came in the form of an article in its mouthpiece newspapers – New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday and The Mirror on Wednesday – questioned the 1990 election results saying it is now irrelevant and lacks the support of the people.
"Then, what will those who claim themselves to have the mandate of the people according to the 1990 election results have to do? Will they have to throw the mandate down the drain," the article questioned.
But critics said the constitution, drafted solely by the junta's handpicked delegates, does not reflect the people's desire and the process of the referendum lacks legitimacy and is fundamentally flawed.
Mathieson said the true desire of the people could only be reflected if the referendum process did not include any form of vote-rigging, intimidation, advance voting or any form of pressures on the people.
On Tuesday, US ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Burma 's referendum fails to meet the standards of the UN Security Council on account of openness and fairness.
In his interaction with the press on his assuming the office of the Council's Presidency for June, Khalilzad told reporters in New York that Burma 's "referendum did not meet the standards that the Security Council had expressed."
"We have not seen satisfactory progress on that… and the easing of the conditions on Aung San Suu Kyi has not taken place besides the issue of the referendum," Khalilzad said.
Meanwhile, Burma 's 88 generation student activists, the All Burma Federation Students' Union and the All Burma Monks Alliance in a joint statement on Wednesday rejected the ruling junta's referendum results and pledged that they will continue activities until a new constitution that reflects the peoples' desire could be formulated.
"We will continue with the Pattanikuzana (boycott campaign) until a new government representing the people can be formed," Sayadaw U Pyinya Wuntha, spokesperson of the ABMA told Mizzima.
But the junta said the people by overwhelmingly approving the constitution shows that they welcome the new government to be formed after the 2010 election.
Mathieson said while practically convening the parliament on the basis of the 1990 election might not be relevant due to the time gap and differences in situation, the legitimacy of the election winners cannot be denied.
"Its practical to say that convening the parliament is no longer viable, however, everyone should remember it still has legitimacy and the surviving Members of Parliament should be given the respect they deserve," Mathieson said.
Nyan Win, spokesperson of the NLD said there are no legal grounds to say that the 1990 election results have lost its relevance. And the junta's constitution cannot be considered legally approved as the junta has pre-determined the result of the referendum.
"Legally, the people have given their mandate to the 1990 election results," said Nyan Win, adding that though the junta failed to honour, it cannot be overridden by a 'rigged referendum'.
However, the NLD believes that the best way forward for Burma 's political future is to negotiate and to hold a dialogue to kick-start an all inclusive process of national reconciliation, Nyan Win added.
