By DPA
London : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday condemned the violence used against protestors in Myanmar and said he would speak to the leaders of the US and China “to agree further action.”
“I had hoped that the Burmese regime would heed the calls for restraint from the international community. But once again they have responded with oppression and force. This must cease,” Brown said in a strongly worded statement.
He said he was pressing for international action against the junta, including tougher European Union (EU) sanctions.
Brown said he would speak to Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and US President George Bush later Friday to agree further action.
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s embattled military leaders beat back an 11th day of protests Friday and faced intense pressure from the international community to stop their brutal crackdown that has already claimed more than a dozen lives.
The protests were smaller and less confrontational than the ones Wednesday and Thursday, eyewitnesses said, with reports of tense standoffs between angry citizens and soldiers who have already demonstrated their willingness to gun down unarmed protesters, including Buddhist monks.
United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was scheduled to arrive in Yangon Saturday to express the world organisation’s concern over the violence in Myanmar. The military regime agreed Thursday to receive the envoy selected by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
During a stopover in Singapore, Gambari met leaders of the city-state, which is the current chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s (ASEAN) standing committee.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo urged Myanmar’s military to act with restraint and called on the junta to free political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“We call on Myanmar to act on its own best interest and to avoid its further isolation and to redeem its democracy without any further delay,” she said in a statement.
Filipino activists have been holding almost daily pickets in front of the Myanmar embassy in Manila to express support for the pro-democracy protests in Yangon.
In Cambodia, another ASEAN member, more than 100 demonstrators braved monsoon rain in Phnom Penh Friday to stage a peaceful protest against the Myanmar military junta.
Rights workers and opposition political figures held banners as the police provided security outside the Myanmar embassy in Phnom Penh with opposition Sam Rainsy Party leader Sam Rainsy using the event to call on ASEAN to throw Myanmar out of the 10-member group if the violence did not stop immediately.
ASEAN consists of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia and is the region’s most powerful diplomatic and trading bloc. Myanmar is a relatively new member, having joined in 1997.