Asia Pacific News
China infuriated by UN move to examine Myanmar concerns
Posted: 16 September 2006 0433 hrs
UNITED NATIONS : Despite China's objections, the Security Council backed a US proposal to put the issue of political repression and human rights violations in Myanmar on its formal agenda.
Ten council members -- including the United States, Britain and France -- voted for the motion to put military-ruled Myanmar on the agenda. China, Russia, Qatar and Congo voted against, with Tanzania abstaining.
As this involved only a procedural matter, a majority of nine votes was required for the motion to be adopted. The five permanent members of the council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- can use their right of veto only on substantive matters.
"The United States and other members of the Security Council are concerned about the deteriorating situation in Myanmar," US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said in an annex to a letter to his Greek counterpart Adamantios Vassilakis, the current council president.
"These conditions threaten to have a destabilizing impact on the region. Therefore we request that the situation in Myanmar . . . be placed on the Council's agenda, and that a senior official of the Secretariat brief member states in a meeting of the Security Council on this situation and its implications for international peace and security," he added.
The United States has been pressing for several months for Myanmar to be put on the council's agenda, arguing that drug trafficking, the mounting numbers of refugees, human rights abuses and the growth of AIDS cases in the Asian nation represents a threat to international peace and security.
But Friday's vote infuriated China, with its UN ambassador Wang Guangya slamming what he called unwarranted interference.
"This means that all countries, any country, that faces similar issues should all be inscribed on the agenda of this council," Wang told the council. "This is preposterous."
Beijing is Myanmar's staunchest international ally and a major main trading partner.
Wang said that neither Myanmar's neighbours nor most countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) consider "the situation in Myanmar as being any threat to regional peace and security."
"Without seeking the consent of the country in question and without a request put forward by any country in the region, some countries as far away as across the oceans harbour the belief that the situation in Myanmar is indeed a threat to international peace and security, this itself represents at least a far cry from the reality."
Putting Myanmar on the Security Council agenda starts a process that will allow for regular formal reports by the UN secretariat to be made on developments in Myanmar.
US First Lady Laura Bush is to host talks on the "humanitarian crisis" in Myanmar during next week's UN general assembly.
Bush will host a roundtable discussion on Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, on September 19, according to her staff, who said the United Nations, US government and non-governmental organizations would be represented.
In a statement, Bush's office said she hoped to "raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Burma and to help gain support for a US-sponsored UN Security resolution to call out Burma for political and human rights violations."
Washington has led efforts to force Yangon to ease human rights concerns, notably release democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the past 17 years.
Myanmar in May extended her detention for another year, defying an international outcry demanding freedom for the 61-year-old Nobel peace laureate.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won 1990 elections but was never allowed to rule. Its offices have been shut down by the government, which has also locked up many other party members.
The US administration has called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
It has also called on the military government to take steps to end "ethnic violence" against the Karen minority and "to address HIV/AIDS and drugs and human trafficking."
- AFP/ls/ir
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/230698/1/.html
