US presses for action over Myanmar; China, Russia reluctant

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 09:59am (Mla time) 09/01/2007

WASHINGTON--The United States is pressing for international action over Myanmar's military junta crackdown on peaceful protests but is expected to again face opposition from China and Russia.

A day after US President George W. Bush strongly condemned the arrests of pro-democracy activists protesting against a massive hike in fuel prices in the Southeast Asian state, his wife Laura Bush on Friday called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to push the Security Council to act.

In a rare political intervention by the wife of the US president, the First Lady also asked Ban to join the United States in condemning the junta's "brutal crackdown," her press secretary Sally McDonough said in a statement.

"Mrs Bush noted that by staying quiet, the United Nations -- and all nations -- condone these abuses," McDonough said as top American lawmakers also urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to demand Security Council action.

Last January, China and Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution pushed primarily by Washington urging Myanmar's (formerly Burma) rulers to free all political detainees and end sexual violence by the military.

"I expect China and Russia to take the same position again if this issue is pushed for some kind of consensus at the UN Security Council," said Mohan Malik, an Asian expert at the Hawaii-based Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

China and Russia, two of five permanent members of the Security Council, have both invested in Myanmar's energy sector, ignoring sanctions imposed on Yangon by the United States and European Union.

Myanmar is also providing China, which is flexing its military muscle in Asia, strategic access to the Indian Ocean. Russia has also ignored US protests to build a nuclear research center for Myanmar.

"The United States has pushed itself into a corner," Malik said, citing years of ineffective US investment and trade sanctions on Myanmar.

The sanctions failed to bite because of Myanmar's strong economic links with China, Thailand, Singapore and India. In fact, foreign direct investments to Myanmar have reportedly increased in recent years.

Washington in June reversed a four-year freeze in high level talks with Myanmar's military junta in the hope of prodding the junta to embrace political reforms. Further talks are now in doubt with the latest crackdown.

Aside from the United States, two other permanent Security Council members, France and Britain, along with Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, the European Union, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have all condemned the crackdown.

"However, at this critical time, words of support from the world's democracies are not enough," said Tom Lantos, the Democratic head of the House of Representatives foreign relations committee, in a letter to Rice.

"The matter needs to be addressed by the UN Security Council," said Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the US Senate.

More than 100 people have been arrested, including some of Myanmar's top pro-democracy leaders, following the largest non-violent demonstrations in the country in five years, that began on August 19 over huge fuel price hikes.

Myanmar's military regime of 45 years has always taken a hardline on the slightest display of dissent. But protesters in recent weeks have defied the threat of arrest and beatings to stage new rallies.

Bush is expected to raise the Myanmar issue with key leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in Sydney next week.

ASEAN has come under fire for being too soft with member state Myanmar's generals, who have kept the country's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for 11 of the past 18 years.

With little pressure from its neighbours, the generals are unlikely to ease their crackdown on dissent.

"The Burmese military regime has shown nothing but contempt for the UN, secure in the knowledge that when the chips are down, China will come to their rescue at the Security Council because China has too many stakes in the junta's survival," Malik said.


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