REPÚBLICA DEMOCRÁTICA DE TIMOR-LESTE
GABINETE DO PRIMEIRO-MINISTRO
______________________________________________________________________
Media Release Dili, 18th January 2007
NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE AND PRIME MINISTER
JOSÉ RAMOS-HORTA EXPRESSES REGRET
ON SECURITY COUNCIL FAILURE TO ACT ON MYANMAR
GABINETE DO PRIMEIRO-MINISTRO
______________________________________________________________________
Media Release Dili, 18th January 2007
NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE AND PRIME MINISTER
JOSÉ RAMOS-HORTA EXPRESSES REGRET
ON SECURITY COUNCIL FAILURE TO ACT ON MYANMAR
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.”
“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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All talk no action = UN
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