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Nobel Peace Laureate and Prime Minister José Ramos-Horta
expresses regret on Security Council failure to act on Myanmar,
18 January
Speaking in Dili after attending the ASEAN Summit in Cebu, The
Philippines where Timor-Leste signed the ASEAN Treaty of Amity
and Cooperation, Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Laureate H.E.
Dr. José Ramos-Horta made the following statement:
"I am deeply disappointed that the Security Council has
failed to take action on Myanmar.
"I am compelled to speak on this matter due to the dire
human rights situation unfolding in Myanmar. My longstanding interest
in and detailed understanding of the situation, now spanning nearly
20 years, is a matter of public record.
"The pretext by some Security Council members that the situation
in Myanmar does not pose a regional or international security
threat is partly true, as Myanmar does not possess nuclear or
biological weapons capability, nor have an army that poses a real
threat to its neighbours.
It is true however, that the human rights situation in Myanmar,
that includes systemic practices of persecution, torture, forced
labour and rape, along with its rampant drug trafficking problem,
the escalating and unchecked HIV rates and an unacceptably high
Internally Displaced Persons population - up to one million and
the flow of refugees (over one million) into neighbouring Thailand,
India, Bangladesh and China, does constitute a serious threat
to regional if not international security.
"This situation then does warrant a Security Council debate
and subsequent action-that could then strengthen the good offices
of the Secretary General.
"Even if we accept that the current situation does not constitute
a regional and international security threat, bearing in mind
that UN agencies, the International Labour Organisation and the
now defunct UN Commission on Human Rights, have failed to effectively
address the human rights situation and help end the violence in
Myanmar, shouldn't this at least be a wake up call to the Security
Council?
"I have to ask: Where is the UN's much talked-about preventive
diplomacy? Shouldn't this have been an opportunity to seize on
the matter and prevent it escalating, or should we bury our heads
in the sand and allow a Dafur-type situation to explode in Myanmar?
"Of course not. We should look realistically and compassionately
at the human rights situation in Myanmar, particularly that of
the Ethnic Nationalities people, a significant part of Myanmar's
population, and the most persecuted and the majority of the IDPs
and refugees, that has been drastically unfolding now for over
some 10 years, in the same vein as that of Dafur.
"The time to act is now and the Security Council's unwillingness
to address the grave human rights situation in Myanmar, demonstrates
the impotency of this most august of bodies in the area it can
best succeed, that of preventive diplomacy."
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