UN wants Myanmar to be on Council agenda

United Nations, Sep 16 (UNI) In a landmark decision, the UN Security Council has voted by 10 votes to four against with one abstention to focus on the situation in the isolated Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, where democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for over 10 of the past 16 years.

Ten nations, including the US, voted in favour of adding Myanmar to the Council agenda, while China, Russia, Qatar and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) voted against it.

Tanzania abstained from voting.

The move came after US envoy John Bolton wrote in a letter to the President of the 15-member body that his and other delegations were concerned about the deteriorating situation in Myanmar, saying it was likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.

However, China's Ambassador Wang Guangya told the procedural meeting, in which no member has the veto, that neither Myanmar's neighbours nor most Asian countries recognise the situation in the country as any threat to regional peace and security.

Along with the US, the other countries voting in favour of putting Myanmar on the Council agenda were Argentina, Denmark, France, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Peru, Slovakia and Britain.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has consistently worked over the years for the release of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Suu Kyi, who has long been a peaceful advocate of fundamental democratic freedoms.

He reaffirmed this commitment when Myanmar's authorities extended her house arrest for another year at the end of May, despite his personal appeal to head of the State, Senior General Than Shwe, to free her.

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