The US will consider introducing a resolution in the UN Security Council to step up international pressure on military-ruled Myanmar for alleged human-rights abuses, the State Department said on Tuesday.
"We would look at that option very, very carefully and we would look at all UN options," Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs Christopher Hill told a Congressional hearing after legislators pressed for such a resolution.
Washington put the international spotlight on Myanmar last December when it pushed the Security Council, despite initial objections from China and Russia, to hold a briefing on human rights and other problems in the Southeast Asian state for the first time.
Not satisfied with this, US legislators on Tuesday pressed Washington, current president of the UN Security Council, to put Myanmar formally on the agenda of the powerful UN panel, a move that could lead to resolutions of condemnation and raise pressure on the military rulers.
Hill agreed that the Myanmar situation warranted continued UN Security Council attention "and we are considering next steps in that body."
On the prospect of a Security Council resolution, he said, "It is our very strong belief that this is an issue that does require a broad number of players and the Security Council is an appropriate place to be informed and to look very closely what the next step is."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan "has designated this year as the year for bringing about a transition to democracy" in Myanmar "and we take the target very seriously," Barry Lowenkron, the Assistant Secretary of State for democracy and human rights, said in his testimony.
Myanmar's military junta has been accused of operating a strict police state and restricting basic rights and freedoms.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner, has been under house arrest for more than 10 of the past 16 years and kept isolated from the outside world.
Suu Kyi's party won the 1990 elections in a landslide but was never allowed to govern.
US legislators said a UN Security Council resolution on Myanmar should call for, among other things, the immediate release of Suu Kyi, a timeline for compliance and punitive sanctions if the military junta failed to comply.
But any US move to haul Myanmar to the Security Council could face opposition from Russia and China as well as Malaysia, which is playing a central Southeast Asian role to prod Myanmar into embarking on reforms.
ASEAN, signaling its impatience with member Myanmar, appointed Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar to visit the country as an ASEAN envoy to check on the progress of democracy. The visit was expected to occur last month but Myanmar said it was too busy to receive Syed Hamid.
Hill said that the US was confident that Syed Hamid and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, also planning a visit Myanmar, would "deliver strong messages" to the military rulers.
Razali Ismail quit last month as UN special envoy to Myanmar after being refused entry for the past two years to the country.
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