Friday, 12 January 2007
CHINA AND RUSSIA VETO DRAFT SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON MYANMAR

China and Russia today vetoed a draft resolution in the Security Council on the situation in Myanmar. This represents the first use of multiple vetoes at the Security Council since 1989. The resolution had received the nine positive votes which, in the absence of vetoes, would have been enough to pass the resolution. Sponsored by the US and the UK, the draft resolution called on Myanmar to release all political prisoners, begin widespread dialogue and end its military attacks and human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.

China and Russia argued that the Security Council was not the appropriate forum for discussing Myanmar since the country does not pose a threat to international peace and security. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the issue would be better handled by other UN organs, particularly the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly and humanitarian agencies such as the World Health Organisation.

After the vote, Acting US Ambassador to the UN Alejandro Wolff said Myanmar’s military regime “arbitrarily arrests, tortures, rapes and executes its own people, wages war on minorities within its own borders, and builds itself new cities, while looking the other way as refugee flows increase, narcotics and human trafficking grow, and communicable diseases remain untreated". Mr Wolff and the UK Ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, expressed deep disappointment at the vetoes, saying the resolution would have sent a clear signal from Council members.

Myanmar has been ruled by a military junta since 1988. The following year, the regime unilaterally changed the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar.