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UNITED NATIONS - The United States has asked the UN Security Council to pressure Myanmar's military leaders to ease repression and improve humanitarian conditions in the isolated southeast Asian nation.
A draft resolution circulated by Washington in the 15-nation council would call on Myanmar to begin a promised transition to democracy and to unconditionally free opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
"The facts of the case speak for themselves and the people of Burma are watching us," acting US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff told reporters after presenting the draft to council members during a closed-door session on Tuesday local time.
Washington wanted a vote "hopefully this week," he added.
The draft measure fulfilled a US pledge made in May to ask the council to push Myanmar to change its policies.
But it was unclear whether the text would get off the ground as several members, including veto-wielding China and Russia, argued that Myanmar did not constitute an international threat to peace and security, the test set by the UN Charter for council involvement.
"We think that it is not an appropriate issue to discuss in the Security Council," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.
Chinese Deputy Ambassador Liu Zhenmin said, "There were great differences among members."
Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest since May 2003. The military has controlled Myanmar since 1962, ignoring a 1990 landslide election victory by her National League for Democracy party.
As a first step toward allowing full freedom of speech, association and movement in the country, the US draft urges the government to release all political prisoners, lift all constraints on political leaders and allow all political parties to open offices.
It would ask the government to include representatives of all ethnic groups and political parties in a national convention convened to rewrite Myanmar's constitution, and end military attacks on civilians in ethnic minority regions.
It would also prod the authorities to "desist immediately from the use of systematic rape of women and girls as an instrument of armed conflict," give international relief groups full access to people in need of humanitarian aid, and work toward the eradication of forced labour.
The resolution, which does not provide for any punishment if Myanmar fails to act, would ask UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report back to the council within six months on what progress the Rangoon government had made in implementing the measure.
The Myanmar authorities have routinely rejected and disregarded for years criticism of their human rights policies by the UN General Assembly, UN rights monitors and world governments.
Ban, a South Korean who became secretary-general on January 1, issued a statement on Monday urging Myanmar to release all political prisoners, including Suu Kyi. That came after the country's military junta announced that it had released 40 political prisoners among 2831 felons freed as part of an amnesty celebrating Burma's independence from Britain.
- REUTERS
