By DPA
London : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Wednesday called for an immediate United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the crisis in Myanmar as world leaders expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in the military-ruled country.
Speaking at a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, southern Britain, Brown said he hoped the Council would convene in New York later Wednesday.
“The whole world is now watching Burma (Myanmar) and its illegitimate and repressive regime should know that the whole world is going to hold it to account,” he said in a warning to the generals in Yangon.
“The age of impunity in neglecting and overriding human rights is over,” said Brown, who paid tribute to the “courage, bravery and resilience of the Burmese people.”
“I hope the Security Council will meet immediately, meet today and discuss this issue and look at what can be done. The first thing that should be done is the UN envoy should be sent to Burma to make them directly aware that any trampling of human rights that takes place is unacceptable.”
It was “incredibly important” to keep up the international pressure on the authorities in Myanmar.
“I want to see the whole of the world getting together on this. Each continent of the world can come together,” said Brown.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband is due to fly to New York to discuss the crisis, in the framework of the UN general assembly session.
“It is very important that we maintain this unanimous international call for restraint…restraint must remain the order of the day,” said Miliband.
A Madrid dispatch said the Spanish government Wednesday expressed its “vivid concern” over the situation in Myanmar, calling on the authorities to show “maximum restraint.”
The “violent repression” of protests, as has occurred over the past few days, “could have very serious consequences,” the foreign ministry warned in a statement.
In a gesture of support to the demonstrations against the military junta in Myanmar, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to meet with representatives of that country’s opposition in exile, his spokesman said Wednesday.
The delegation will be headed by the Myanmar prime minister in exile, Sein Win, a cousin of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Sun Kyi, David Martinon said in a press statement.
Myanmarese exiles urged the German government to increase political pressure on the military regime in their native country.
The Burma Office and the religious organization Buddha Sasana Ramsi called for economic sanctions and severing diplomatic ties if troops use force to break up peaceful protests in the country.
Amnesty International Wednesday called upon the UN Security Council to send a mission to Myanmar and urged China, Japan, India and countries of the Asean grouping to “use their influence” to solve the crisis.
A statement released in London by Amnesty Secretary General, Irene Khan, stressed that China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, had a “critical role to play.”
The same was true for the Asean countries, as well as Japan and India, who should all use their influence to “end the truly forgotten human rights emergency in Myanmar.”