Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Malaysia's Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Monday that Southeast Asian countries must dec...
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| Image: Reuters |
Myanmar has been in a crisis since February of last year, when the army overthrew the elected government of leader Aung San Suu Kyi, arrested her and other officials, and started a bloody crackdown on protests and dissent.
Myanmar is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is in charge of making peace.
Abdullah said, "Between now and the ASEAN summit in November, ASEAN needs to take a serious look at whether the five-point consensus is still useful and whether it should be replaced with something better." "By the time we get together in November, we need to have asked and answered that hard question."
Abdullah told reporters at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where world leaders meet every year, that he hoped the 15-member U.N. Security Council would not let the people of Myanmar down.
The British wrote a resolution that was sent to the U.N. Security Council on Friday. It calls for an end to all violence in Myanmar, asks that arms not be sent there right away, and threatens U.N. sanctions.
It would also ask the Myanmar junta to free all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, follow the ASEAN peace plan, and let the country change to democracy.
But the Security Council has been divided on Myanmar for a long time. Diplomats say that China and Russia are likely to stop any strong action against Myanmar, and negotiations on the British draught resolution are likely to take a while.
For a Security Council resolution to be passed, it needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes from Russia, China, the US, France, or Britain.
