US President George W. Bush announced new sanctions yesterday against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, accusing it of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.
"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma," the president said in an address to the UN General Assembly.
Bush also urged other nations to support the struggle for democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.
"The people of Lebanon and Afghanistan and Iraq have asked for our help and every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand with them," Bush said.
"Every civilized nation also has a responsibility to stand up for the people suffering under dictatorship," the president said. "In Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Iran, brutal regimes deny their people the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration [of the UN]."
Bush also said he was willing to consider expanding the UN Security Council and pressed for Japan, a close US ally, to get a permanent seat on the panel.
"The United States is open to this prospect," Bush said. "We believe that Japan is well-qualified for permanent membership on the Security Council and that other nations should be considered as well."
The 15-member Security Council, the most powerful UN body which can make mandatory decisions on war and peace, has five veto-bearing permanent members named when the UN was created in 1945.
The permanent members are Britain, China, France, Russia and the US. Ten other countries rotate for two-year terms according to regions.
A majority of UN members believe the Security Council is unrepresentative and dominated by industrial nations.
Other issues likely to appear in the opening debates of the General Assembly include climate change -- the theme of this year's session.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said at the close of a one-day summit on climate change at the UN on Monday that there was "a clear call from world leaders for a breakthrough on climate change" at key talks in Bali in December.
The Dec. 3 to Dec. 14 conference is tasked with setting down a roadmap for negotiations culminating in a new global deal for addressing global warming.
Also in the spotlight at the UN gathering are efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and civil strife in the Sudanese region of Darfur, where a UN-African Union force is due to deploy next year.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is hoping to convene international peace talks later this year to set out the contours of a Palestinian state.
The four sponsors of the stalled peace process -- the US, the EU, Russia and the UN -- have expressed support for the gathering.
Also yesterday, France chaired a Security Council summit on Africa expected to endorse sending EU and UN troops to Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians reeling from a spillover of the Darfur conflict.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy chaired the session, attended by representatives of all 15 council members, including Bush.
Participants in the debate are widely expected to overwhelmingly approve a French-drafted resolution to endorse the deployment of a joint UN-EU force to the two impoverished former French colonies.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to address the world body later in the day, and was expected to try to reassure the international community that it has nothing to fear from Tehran's civilian nuclear program.
See stories:
University head rebukes Ahmadinejad
Canada's future in Afghanistan to be known in April
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
MISSION: The Indo-Pacific region is ‘the priority theater,’ where the task of deterrence extends across the entire region, including Taiwan, the US Pacific Fleet commander said The US Navy’s “mission of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific theater applies to Taiwan, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Stephen Koehler told the South China Sea Conference on Tuesday. The conference, organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), is an international platform for senior officials and experts from countries with security interests in the region. “The Pacific Fleet’s mission is to deter aggression across the Western Pacific, together with our allies and partners, and to prevail in combat if necessary, Koehler said in the event’s keynote speech. “That mission of deterrence applies regionwide — including the South China Sea and Taiwan,” he
UNPRECEDENTED: In addition to the approved recall motions, cases such as Ma Wen-chun’s in Nantou are still under review, while others lack enough signatures The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced yesterday that a recall vote would take place on July 26, after it approved the first batch of recall motions targeting 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安). Taiwan is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of mass recall campaigns, following a civil society push that echoed a call made by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) in January to initiate signature drives aimed at unseating KMT legislators. Under the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), Taiwanese can initiate a recall of district-elected lawmakers by collecting
RSS