West warns Myanmar, China and India stay quiet

Tue 25 Sep 2007, 14:17 GMT

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LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The United States announced new sanctions on Myanmar on Tuesday and urged others to follow suit as fears rose that military rulers would crack down on the Asian nation's biggest pro-democracy protests in nearly 20 years.

Europe and Japan urged restraint but reaction from Myanmar's key neighbours India and China was muted as the junta poured troops into the centre of the main city Yangon.

Soldiers and armed police surrounded the Sule Pagoda, focus of two days of mass protests led by thousands of maroon-robed Buddhist monks, witnesses said.

President George W. Bush announced new U.S. sanctions against Myanmar's military rulers and urged other countries to follow suit, saying Americans were "outraged" by rights abuses.

"The United States will tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and their financial backers," he said in his annual address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

"We will impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights."

Yangon's pagoda area was the scene of the worst bloodshed in a 1988 crackdown on protests in which 3,000 people are thought to have been killed. Myanmar has had 45 years of military rule.

The European Union urged the government and protesters "to exercise maximum restraint".

"So far no violence has been used to quell the peaceful demonstrations. However, we are also concerned by an increasing military presence on the streets -- more and more visible," said a spokesman for the EU's executive Commission.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged fellow EU heads of state to agree to "warn the Burmese government that we are watching their behaviour and that the EU will impose tougher sanctions if they make the wrong choices".

"We need concerted international action to discourage violence. We need to stand together," he wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

France said it was warning Yangon against force "to repress the just political and social claims of the Myanmar people".

Japan, in a Foreign Ministry statement, urged Myanmar to respond calmly and "take seriously the wishes of the people as evidenced by the demonstrations and begin talks with a view to achieving reconciliation and democratisation".

QUIET GIANTS

But Myanmar's two biggest and most influential neighbours were reluctant to get publicly involved.

"China always adopts a policy of non-interference," said a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. "China hopes to see stability and economic development in Myanmar."

"It is too early to say anything," said an Indian Foreign Ministry official, who did not want to be named.

South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu praised protesters he said walked in the footsteps of the anti-apartheid movement.

"It is so like the rolling mass action that eventually toppled apartheid," the Nobel peace laureate said.

"We admire our brave sisters and brothers in Burma/Myanmar and want them to know we support their peaceful protests to end a vicious rule of oppression and injustice," he said.

"Victory is assured. They are on the winning side, the side of freedom, justice and democracy."

He called on the United Nations and international community to press Myanmar's junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, also a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and all political detainees, and allow the establishment of democracy.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said visibility was a measure of protection.

"These demonstrations have attracted much more media coverage than in the past and that gives hope that there will not be completely unacceptable reprisals," she said in Geneva.

Gareth Evans, head of the International Crisis Group think-tank, said: "The regime has a long history of violent reactions to peaceful demonstrations.

"If serious loss of life is to be averted, U.N. members with influence over the government are going to have to come together fast," he said, referring to China, Russia and India.