UN condemns Burma crackdown

The United Nations Security Council issued its first rebuke of Burma's military regime on Thursday in a statement deploring the violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last month.

The statement, first drafted by the United States, Britain and France, was agreed to by all 15 Security Council member nations, including China.

China has previously used its veto power in the Security Council to block efforts to condemn the actions of its trading partner Burma, also known as Myanmar.

"The Security Council emphasizes the importance of the early release of all political prisoners and remaining detainees," the statement said. "It also calls on the government of Myanmar and all other parties concerned to work together towards a de-escalation of the situation and a peaceful solution."

The Security Council had been debating issuing the statement since last week, but was stalled during Wednesday's negotiations on the wording of previous draft statements concerning the release of political prisoners and detainees.

The statement also urged junta leaders to prepare for a "genuine dialogue" with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years without trial.

Protesters gathered in the streets by the tens of thousands in September to demand more democratic freedom, the release of political activists and economic reforms in Burma - an impoverished country that has been ruled by a military junta in one form or another since 1962.

On Sept. 24, heavily armed Burmese troops moved in on thousands of monks, students and others who had been staging daily protests in the city of Rangoon. Other soldiers raided monasteries across the country, making sweeping arrests.

The Burmese government has acknowledged 12 people were killed and nearly 2,100 arrested, with 700 later released.

But diplomats and dissident groups have said the death toll is likely much higher and up to 6,000 people were seized, including hundreds of monks who led the protests and were allegedly tortured following their detention.

Following his visit to Burma last week, UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari warned the country's military rulers that the crackdown could have "serious international repercussions."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• United
• Nations
• Security
• Council
• Burma
• pro-democracy
• protesters
• cbc
• monk
• mediascrape

[htm7172]

Before you call anyone stupid, get your facts straight kid.

Boycott China because China is blocking UN resolution to Burma, selling weapons to Burmese Junta and ongoing trade relation which only benefit the Burmese government not the people. We are not against Chinese, but the policy.

[seinpan2007]

boycott china olympics. down with generals.

long live our buddhism.

[bualkuapa]

haha ha bur ma peopel

[kalaymyoGTC]

အလကား ေခြးမသားေတြ ဘာမွလုပ္ေပးနိုင္တာလည္း မဟုတ္ဘဲနဲ႕ ပါးစပ္ကေလလံုးထြားေနၾကတယ္ ခ်ီထုပ္ေတြ

[babakalabash]

I am from from Sri Lanka and I feel very sad when a monk is attacked. Myanmar, please protect your monks. We got our Amarapura Nikkaya from Burma.

[ageniusmg]

No wonder UN can talk a lot, because they have mouths...ha..ha..ha..ha..

[DarrenRyanMurphy]

If you want to help Burma, visit the country and put your dollars in the hands of the Burmese people. These people are being starved by US and EU sanctions on free trade, while the military haven't reduced their expenditure at all - as the sanctions were intended to do.

[MrKmafia]

i would like to see the demostration happen again but i m sure the UN cant do anything to make a change in Burma bc they afraid of China..

[soannnyarwon]

Burmese troops tortured the Buddhist Monks is not surprised for me, Burmese king,

Aung Zay Ya leave so many lessons for Burma how to kill Buddhist monks. they are

the experts. Their nation is the first buddhist killer and mother fucker in the world.

what about Cristians and Muslim in Burma? They did not see what Buddhist monks are doing for freedom. this time your god did not send you to sacrifice your life for freedom... plz answer...

[geerrarrd]

UN talks a lot but no results,hahahaha----

[gothgod]

CBC doesn't bother to mention that Canada also supports the repressive regime because Canadian companies are doing well in Burma - paying subsistence wages & using the military and police to crack down on any attempts to unionize workers and to shut down anyone who raises concerns over wages or working conditions. Profit is what guides western nations not human rights. Harper like the Americans believe workers have no rights.