Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has adopted its first resolution on Myanmar in 74 years, demanding an end to the ongoing violence in the country and urging the ruling military junta to release the ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as all other political prisoners.
The multi-ethnic Southeast Asian nation has been in crisis since the military clinched power from Suu Kyi’s elected government on February 1, 2021, arresting her and other officials and using lethal force to clamp down on anti-junta protests and dissent.
‘A firm message’
“Today we have sent a firm message to the (Myanmar) military that they should have no doubt – we expect this resolution to be fully implemented,” Britain’s Ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward said following the vote on the British-drafted resolution.
She added, “We’ve also sent a clear message to Myanmar’s people that we want progress in line with their rights, their wishes, and their interests.”
China, Russia and India abstain from voting on resolution
China and Russia, who have been supporting Myanmar’s military leaders since the coup, as well as India, abstained from voting. Meanwhile, the remaining 12 UNSC members voted in favour of the resolution.
China’s UN ambassador, Zhang Jun, said after abstaining from the vote that there was no quick fix to the Myanmar issue. “It depends fundamentally, and only, on the country itself, if the matter can be properly resolved in the end” he told the council. Zhang said that Beijing wanted the council to adopt a formal statement on Myanmar, instead of a resolution.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said his country did not consider the situation in Myanmar a threat to international security and therefore believed the UNSC should not be dealing with it.
