News and Analysis, Burma – No UN Security Council Resolution, 14 January 2007
A joint United States United Kingdom resolution on Burma was vetoed by both Russia and China in a UN Security Council vote on 12 January. According to Associated Press reporter Edith Lederer, the U.S. at the last minute softened the resolution by changing the language in the hopes of increasing the chances of getting it passed. The original language stated that Burma posed “serious risks to peace and security in the region”, but this was altered to read that Burma needed to make “tangible progress in the overall situation…in order to minimize the risks to peace and security in the region.” The change in language did not make a difference in the end. The voting on the resolution was as follows:
In favor – U.S., U.K., Belgium, France, Ghana, Italy, Panama, Peru, Slovakia
Against – South Africa
Abstentions – Indonesia, Qatar, Republic of the Congo
Vetoes – Russia and China
The main obstacle to passage as articulated by the Chinese and Russian Ambassadors to the UN was that the resolution was inappropriate for the Security Council to consider as Burma does not represent a serious threat to regional peace and stability and that the issue should be handled by other UN organs such as Human Rights Council. This argument was also echoed by some nations attending the 12th ASEAN Summit in the Philippines.
(Comment: Passing a resolution condemning Burma through the UN Security Council was a key regional policy objective for the U.S. over the last several months and this failure represents a significant setback. However, the result of the U.S effort has been to continually illuminate to a global audience Burma’s obstinate lack of democratic progress and its seemingly endless unjust imprisonment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. As seen by the vote, the U.S. is not internationally isolated in its Burma position, but simply could not sway China, a close Burmese trading partner and strategic ally, and Russia, a nation having problems of its own in the area of democratic progress and that clearly does not want to see precedent set in this area.) [slr]
built by Contigo