The United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) has called on the United Nations and the international community to continue “effective pressure” on Burma’s military government. The statement, released today, coincides with the first United Nations Security Council meeting to be held discussing Burma since President Obama was elected in the United States.

“We… urge the United Nations and the international community to refrain from supporting the regime's unilateral roadmap and planned election,” reads the statement, released on February 20th.

The statement also detailed the UNA’s opposition to elections scheduled by the regime for 2010. The elections are predicated on an illegitimate constitution, says the group, which the group argues guarantees un-democratic amounts of power to the military and makes ethnic nationalities the “subordinates of the Burma majority.”

“This Constitution, if it comes alive through the 2010 election, could not produce any positive outcome,” says the UNA statement. “It would push our country towards total chaos.”

“We want to show where ethnic groups stand – that we want on national reconciliation and democratization in our country,” added UNA spokesman Oo Pu Chin Sain Thang in an interview with IMNA.

“I think that Mr. Gambari [United Nations special envoy to Burma] is not fair to [ethnic groups in Burma] because he has come to Burma 7 times without meeting with ethnic leaders,” added Oo Pu Chin Sain Thang. “And when he arrived in Japan he released a statement with Japan’s government saying the Burmese government should move forward with the 2010 elections and they should be respected by the international community. So I think that Mr. Gambari is Burmese government side.”

The statement referred to by Oo Pu Chin Sain Thang was made by Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone in mid February. According to coverage by the AFP, he and Gambari “agreed that all the relevant parties need to participate in the democratization process of Myanmar” and that “encouraging the Myanmar government to hold a general election in 2010 in a form that be congratulated by the international community.”

The UNA is a coalition of 12 ethnic political parties in Burma which 67 seats in Burma’s 1990 election, which was subsequently annulled by the country’s military government. The alliance are Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD),Mon National Democratic Front (MNDF),Zomi National Congress (ZNC),Arakan League for Democracy (ALD),Chin National League for Democracy (CNLD),Kayin National Congress for Democracy (KNCD),Kachin State National Congress for Democracy (KNCD),Kayah State All Nationalities League for Democracy (KSANLD),Kayan National Unity and Democratic Organization (DOKNU),Mra People’s Party (MPP)Shan State Kokant Democratic Party (SSKDP), Arakan People’s Democratic Front (APDF).