The UN General Assembly on Wednesday strongly condemned widespread human rights violations in Myanmar and called on the government to halt politically motivated arrests and free all detainees and political prisoners, including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
The sharply worded resolution, sponsored by the US, Australia, South Korea, Israel and many European countries, was approved by a vote of 80 to 25 with 45 abstentions.
Myanmar accused the assembly of “blatant interference” in its internal political process and said it would not be bound by the resolution. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but carry weight because they reflect the views of the 192-member world body.
Myanmar’s representative, who was not identified, told the assembly the country had made significant political strides and was now on track for a smooth transition to democracy, with a seven-step political process including multiparty elections in 2010.
But the resolution expressed “grave concern” at the failure to include members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and other political parties and some ethnic groups “in a genuine process of dialogue, national reconciliation and transition to democracy.”
It said Myanmar’s political processes “are not transparent, inclusive, free and fair, and that the procedures established for the drafting of the [country’s new] constitution resulted in the de facto exclusion of the opposition from the process.”
The General Assembly also expressed grave concern at the government’s decision to go ahead with a referendum on the Constitution “in an atmosphere of intimidation and without regard to international standards of free and fair elections at a time of dire humanitarian need” just after Cyclone Nargis devastated coastal areas in early May.
It took note of the government’s cooperation with the international community in delivering aid to cyclone victims “despite its initial denial of access, which resulted in widespread suffering and increased the risk of loss of life.”
The cyclone affected 2.4 million people and left an estimated 130,000 people dead or missing.
Myanmar’s military, which has ruled since 1962, when the country was known as Burma, tolerates no dissent and crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in September last year. It holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 before the demonstrations, human rights groups say.
The General Assembly “strongly” called on Myanmar’s government “to desist from further politically motivated arrests and to release without delay and without conditions those who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, as well as all political prisoners.”
The resolution said those freed should include Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her party, leaders of the 88 Generation — a group at the forefront of a 1988 pro-democracy uprising — leaders of ethnic groups and all those detained as a result of last year’s protests.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.
The General Assembly expressed deep concern that urgent calls to Myanmar’s government to improve human rights and institute democratic reforms “have not been met.”
It strongly condemned “the ongoing systematic violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the people of Myanmar.”
The resolution expressed “grave concern” at Myanmar’s “continuing practice of enforced disappearances, use of violence against peaceful demonstrators, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment” and arbitrary detentions.
It singled out Aung San Suu Kyi, last year’s protestors, “as well as the high and increasing number of political prisoners.”
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS