New York, Sep 28 (DPA) A UN envoy is to begin his trip to Myanmar Saturday to assess the crisis in that country where military authorities have cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators, the United Nations said.
Myanmar’s military junta agreed to receive Ibrahim Gambari, a UN spokeswoman said Thursday. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon received Myanmar’s assurance that it would cooperate with Gambari, Marie Okabe said.
The pledge was made by Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win, who was visiting New York and met Ban, who called on Myanmar’s government “to engage in a constructive dialogue” with Gambari “and to commit to a path of peaceful and inclusive national reconciliation”, Ban’s office said.
The US demanded that Gambari be allowed to meet all parties in the current turmoil, in which a week and a half of peaceful anti-government protests in Yangon have been met by the military junta with shootings, beatings and arrests.
Among those Gambari must be allowed access to are religious leaders, political detainees, and democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for years, the White House said.
US President George W. Bush held an apparently unscheduled meeting Thursday with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi of China, one of Myanmar’s few allies, and called on Beijing to use its influence with Myanmar’s junta to encourage it to peacefully transition to democracy, the White House said.
The meeting came on the same day in which the US enacted sanctions against 14 top officials in Myanmar’s regime.
The US Treasury Department placed the sanctions on the chief of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, Senior General Than Shwe, who also serves as defence minister and effectively rules the junta.
The sanctions freeze any assets and prohibit Americans and US companies from having business transactions with Shwe and the 13 others, including Lieutenant General Thein Sein, the acting prime minister, and Vice Senior General Maung Aye, the commander of the army.
The European Union has also begun considering sanctions on the country once known as Burma.
“The world is watching the people of Burma take to the streets to demand their freedom, and the American people stand in solidarity with these brave individuals,” Bush said.
Myanmar’s neighbours also condemned its actions.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Myanmar is a member, said in a statement issued Thursday in New York that it was “appalled to receive reports of automatic weapons being used and demanded that the Myanmar government immediately desist from the use of violence against demonstrators”.
The Asean foreign ministers were at UN headquarters to take part in a debate at the UN General Assembly. Diplomats said Nyan Win did not sign the statement.
The statement was issued on a day the violence escalated in Yangon. At least nine people – eight protestors and a Japanese photojournalist – were killed, state television said. The first deaths were reported a day earlier with the government saying one person died Wednesday while dissidents and officials said at least five people, including monks, were killed.
The Asean statement expressed “revulsion” to Nyan Win over reports of violence committed against the demonstrators and the deaths.
The statement called for “utmost restraint” and for a political solution. It called also for the release of all political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Japan on Friday filed a strong protest against the Myanmar government over the death of the Japanese journalist and demanded the junta refrain from using violence against the protestors.
Tokyo, like other governments in Asia, has conducted a policy of engagement with Myanmar’s junta, rather than the sanctions preferred by the West, in the hopes of persuading its regime to improve its human rights record and move toward democracy. On Thursday, before more killings were reported, Japan had called for dialogue to resolve the upheaval.
China, which days earlier had used its veto power in the UN Security Council to quash a joint statement on Myanmar, warned its ally Thursday to exercise restraint in handling anti-government protestors and voiced its support of UN mediation between the two sides.