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China defends its Myanmar UN veto

China's foreign minister yesterday defended the decision to veto a UN Security Council resolution on Myanmar that would have called on the regime to free all political prisoners.

China and Russia blocked the US-sponsored measure in the council's first double veto for nearly 20 years, hampering Washington's efforts to press Myanmar's military junta over its human rights record.

"China's position is completely in accordance with the UN charter's spirit," Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) said on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in the Philippines, which is also being attended by Myanmar.

"It is in the interest of international peace and regional stability. It is in the people's interest," Li said. "If you read the UN charter, you would know why China voted this way."

He did not elaborate but China's UN ambassador said after the vote that the situation in Myanmar did "not represent a threat to international peace" -- one of the charter's standards for council action.

"China believes there's no need for the UN Security Council to get involved," Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya (王光亞) said.

Myanmar has kept Nobel Peace Prize-winner and democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for much of the last two decades.

Her opposition political party won elections in 1990 but was never allowed to govern. Many of her supporters remain behind bars.

The US has accused the regime of torturing, raping and executing its own people, waging war on minorities and looking the other way while drug and human trafficking grows.

Myanmar has repeatedly proved a thorny issue for members of ASEAN, who are meeting this weekend in a resort in Cebu.

It has been slow to implement a pledged "road map" to democracy, and ASEAN countries have been debating the creation of their own charter -- which would allow them more sway over the internal affairs of member nations.

Student activists were set to hold a candlelight vigil outside the ASEAN gala banquet yesterday evening in Cebu to call for democracy in Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.

The UN estimate there are 1,100 political prisoners in Myanmar.
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