East Timor joins arms embargo call against junta

by Mungpi
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 19:27

New Delhi (Mizzima) - President of East Timor Dr. Jose Ramos Horta on Monday called on the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo against the Burmese military regime, joining a host of countries calling for such action.

Dr. Jose Ramos Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, in a statement on Monday said the Burmese military junta’s decision to sentence Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in August has proved its extraordinary inhumanity and intransigence.

“I deplore this decision, and call for her immediate and unconditional release,” Dr. Horta said.

Dr. Horta said the events in the past two years in Burma such as the junta’s brutal crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007, the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis, the constitutional referendum, escalating military offensive against civilians in eastern Burma, and the trial and continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi are all examples of the desperate political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in Burma.

“As President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, I therefore call on all members of the UN Security Council to give serious consideration to this question, and to pass a resolution imposing a total, comprehensive, mandatory arms embargo,” Dr. Harto said in the statement.

He said the deterioration in the political and humanitarian situation calls for a clear response by the international community saying, “There can be no justification for selling arms to a regime which has no external threats and uses those arms simply to suppress its owns people.”

Dr. Harto’s statement came as campaigners lobby countries to endorse a UN Security Council resolution on a global arms embargo against Burma’s military rulers.

According to Benedict Roger of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a Christian campaign group, at least 33 countries have endorsed the move so far but fear remains that China and Russia, the two veto wielding countries and close allies of the Burmese military junta, would block any attempt to push the UNSC to act.

“The biggest challenge is to persuade China and Russia not to veto a resolution imposing an arms embargo,” Rogers said.

Rogers said, although the Burmese junta might continue manufacturing their own arms, a universal arms embargo will deprive the regime of access to foreign weapons supplies and would send a very important message to the international community about the illegitimacy of the regime.

The European Union, United Kingdom, United States of American, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and East Timor have so far called for an arms embargo against the Burmese regime.