by Mungpi
Sunday, 13 December 2009 23:25
New Delhi (Mizzima) - United States President Barack Obama, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, warned Burmese military dictators along with others in different parts of the world that there will be ‘Consequences’ for violating the rights of their own citizens.
Obama, in his speech, in Oslo, Norway on Thursday, said governments that violate the rules must be held accountable and the world cannot afford to ignore threats to peace from regimes that violate the rights of their own citizens or others.
“When there is genocide in Darfur; systematic rape in Congo; or repression in Burma – there must be consequences,” Obama said.
But admitting his administration’s policy of engagement, Obama said, “Sanctions without outreach – and condemnation without discussion – can carry forward a crippling status quo. No repressive regime can move down a new path unless it has the choice of an open door.”
United States, which has long imposed sanctions on Burma’s military rulers, in September, announced a new policy that includes direct engagement with the Burmese regime while maintaining existing sanctions, which could be tightened or eased depending on the improvements of human rights in Burma.
Since the announcement, in November, US had sent a delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell to Naypyitaw, the new Burmese jungle capital, to hold talks with junta officials and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Campbell’s visit was the first in 14 years by a high-level US official to Burma, a country ruled by military dictators for nearly half a century.
Obama, in his speech, said there would be painstaking engagement and diplomacy but when all these fails there would be consequences.
“And the closer we stand together, the less likely we will be faced with the choice between armed intervention and complicity in oppression,” he said.
Obama said he rejected the idea of governments choosing between promoting human rights and national interest saying, “I reject this choice. I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear.”
The denial of human aspirations cannot serve the interest of any country and in promoting peace, governments must respect the rights of their citizens, Obama said.
“America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal,” Obama said.
“We will bear witness to the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang Suu Kyi; to the bravery of Zimbabweans who cast their ballots in the face of beatings; to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran.”
He said, leaders of these governments fear the aspiration of their own people more than the power of any other nation and it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear to these movements that “hope and history are on their side.”
Sunday, December 13, 2009
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