U.S. senators ask State Department to arrange U.N. Security Council session on Myanmar

The Associated Press
Published: August 29, 2007

WASHINGTON: Two senior members of the U.S. Senate and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee urged the State Department to persuade the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on human rights violations in Myanmar.

Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos on Wednesday cited the country's "widespread crackdown" on pro-democracy and human rights activists over the past week, including incidents in Myanmar in which activists have been arrested in the middle of the night and others have been beaten and carted off in trucks after protesting. He also cites the military regime's war against ethnic minorities.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Lantos urged Rice to call for a U.N. Security Council briefing of Myanmar's situation.

Sens. Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate's Republican minority, and Dianne Feinstein, Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary terrorism subcommittee, wrote that "The current situation in Burma merits a strong and meaningful response by our government." Burma is another name for Myanmar.

McConnell and Feinstein asked Rice to urge U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council on the situation involving "repressive measures" from Myanmar authorities "in response to the largest nonviolent demonstrations in Burma in five years."

Pro-democracy demonstrators in Yangon, the capital, have been met by soldiers sent by the country's ruling junta to quell protests of rising energy prices and increases in the cost of living.

Past attempts by the Bush administration to get the Security Council formally and publicly address the Myanmar situation have been blocked by China and Russia, which are reluctant to let the council in human rights issues lest their own problems in Tibet and Chechnya also come under scrutiny.