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.”
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the