Posted on 06/24/2005 6:35:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States raised the plight of Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 1,300 other political prisoners on Friday, but Russia and China blocked U.N. Security Council discussion of actions by the country's ruling military junta.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador Gerald Scott said the Bush administration felt it was important to remind the international community that the situation continues to decline.
When Scott raised the issue, diplomats said several nations echoed U.S. concerns but Russia and China objected to putting Myanmar on the council's agenda.
Unless an issue is on the council's agenda, it cannot be formally discussed. Members use this practice to restrict the range of issues before the U.N.'s most powerful body. For instance, this is why the council has never dealt with Kashmir, Chechnya and Tibet.
"There has been no discussion," Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Konstantin Dolgov told reporters after the meeting. "We don't see any grounds for including it on the agenda, because the Security Council is seized with matters of international peace and security."
Other diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because it was a closed meeting, said China, which has close ties with Myanmar, took the same position.
The military has ruled Myanmar - also known as Burma - since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising and it has been accused of rampant human rights abuses.
It called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory. Fearing the political strength of her popularity, the military has detained Suu Kyi repeatedly, most recently in 2003.
Her 60th birthday on Sunday was celebrated around the world with calls for her freedom.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has branded Myanmar one of the world's "outposts of tyranny" along with Cuba, Belarus and Zimbabwe.
pong
The UN is much more than useless. It's a dangerous tool of the enemy!
Russia and the PRC are the two top military supporters of the Junta. And our "friends" in Pakistan are also guilty.
Putin tags along with China again.
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