By DPA
Sydney : Australia Tuesday rejected Myanmar’s nomination of an army general as the Southeast Asian country’s envoy to Canberra. The snub is in response to the brutal treatment of protesting Buddhist monks and their pro-democracy supporters.
“We made it clear to the Burmese that under no circumstances were we going to have somebody from their military regime as an ambassador, as a representative, here in Australia,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
Downer said the rejection of Brig. Gen. Thura U Thet Oo Maung was almost unprecedented.
“It’s a very rare case, and we rejected the nomination,” Downer said.
Australia, which has very little trade with Myanmar, has financial sanctions and visa restrictions in place.
Last week after Myanmar’s military junta cracked down on anti-government protesters, Downer’s department called in the acting ambassador to formally protest the human rights violations there.