USA: The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Myanmar says it poses no threat to international peace and security

The Minister of Foreign Affairs for Myanmar told the 61st meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday (September 26) that his country posed no threat to international peace and security, as deemed by the U.N. Security Council. "To our dismay and frustration there has been glaring abuse of the mandate entrusted to the Security Council by its member states by unjustly placing the situation of my country on the agenda of the Security Council by alleging that it poses a threat to regional peace and security. Nothing could be further from the truth. Myanmar has done nothing that can undermine the peace and security of any country, let alone international peace and security. Myanmar has close and cordial relations with all her five neighbours and other countries in the region," Nyan Win told delegates. Ten nations, including the United States, voted in favour of adding Myanmar to the Security Council agenda, while China, Russia, Qatar and the Democratic Republic of Congo voted against it. Tanzania abstained. The vote cleared the way for Washington to follow through on a promised push for a human rights resolution against the isolated Southeast Asian nation, even though U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters none was planned immediately. Win encouraged U.N. member states not to tolerate aggression against Myanmar by more powerful nations. "The founder of the U.N. did not intend the world body to become a forum where some members with political and economical clout could gang up against a member state and label it for what it is not. We therefore ask all the member states to resist attempts by those powerful states to influence the Security Council to take action against a member state which in no way poses any threat to international peace and security," he said. The military has run Myanmar since 1962, ignoring a 1990 landslide election victory by the National League for Democracy party led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in prison or under house arrest since May 2003. Many of her supporters have been jailed. The party of the detained leader welcomed Myanmar's placement on the Security Council's agenda, but some Myanmar analysts see little concrete action as China is almost certain to veto any resolution that would upset its commercial relationship with Myanmar's generals.

ITN Source | September 27, 2006

Tags:. .push. .promised. .forum. .analysts. .posed