The Myanmar junta's plan to hold a national referendum while its people are reeling in the aftermath of a devastating cyclone "will not produce any good outcome," a model and designer from the country who was granted refugee status in Japan in 1993 told reporters Friday in Tokyo.
Despite reports that an estimated 1.5 million were affected by last week's cyclone, which claimed thousands of lives, Myanmar's military regime will hold a national referendum Saturday on a bill to establish a new constitution that will strengthen the junta's control over the country.
"I was able to phone my relatives (Tuesday). They told me there is a severe water shortage in their area," Zarny Shibuya, 23, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.