New Delhi – Given that the UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's visit to military-ruled Burma did precious little in resolving the country's political imbroglio, the world body needs to think of an alternative, Burmese activists in exile said on Thursday.

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC), a new group formed by Burmese activists in exile, in a press release said the UN must force the Burmese junta to recognize the 1990 election results instead of treading on its "roadmap to democracy".

"The UN's role in Burma is hypocritical as it seems to have been taken in by the junta's game plan. Rather the UN should take a binding resolution on Burma," said Myo Thein, the UK director of BDC, which is an international campaign for Burma, formed with activists.

Despite several visits by the UN envoy to Burma where he engaged the military leaders, there has been no indication of the junta's willingness for change, the BDC said.

"All the talks, the scheduled referendum and elections are the junta's tactics to smother the international community's pressures. And there is no genuine effort on the part of the junta to usher in reforms in the country's politics," Myo Thein said.

With the junta refusing to recognize the 1990 election results, there is no guarantee that it will honour the results of the ensuing referendum in May and elections in 2010, he added.

"Unless the junta gets its desired results in both the referendum and the elections, the junta will repeat what it did in 1990," said Myo Thein adding that the junta would not have announced the referendum and elections, without planning victory.

In 1990, the junta, which seized power after crushing student protests in 1988, held a general election. However, when the poll results were contrary to what the junta had anticipated, the generals refused to honour it.

Instead the junta arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the election winning party – the National League for Democracy – and put her in solitary confinement.

After nearly 18 years, the junta in February announced that it is ready to hold a referendum in May on its draft constitution - which took the junta 14 long years to formulate its basic guidelines in a National Convention.

The junta also declared the referendum will be followed by a general election in 2010.

The junta is about to repeat what it did in 1990, Myo Thein said.

"The UN should realise that its efforts are not producing results and it should think of an alternative," added Myo Thein.

But, Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, during an interview with Singapore's Straits Times newspaper said he is hopeful that the Burmese junta is implementing political changes in the Indonesian model, which turned it into a democracy from a military ruled state.

"I can reveal to you that the junta has been looking for a model closer to Indonesia where there was a transition from military to civilian rule and ultimately to democracy," Gambari said, during the interview, which was published on Wednesday.

Despite Gambari's hopes, Myo Thein said there are so far no signs indicating that the junta is ready for a change and called on the UN to impose stricter and more targeted sanctions on the generals, so as to force them to implement change.