The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Friday, June 18, calling on "all member states to prevent the flow of arms" to Burma and condemning the military coup of February 1, 2021. A takeover a rare position which does not go so far as to call for a global embargo for this country.
This text was approved by 119 countries, 36 abstaining, including China, Burma's first supporter, which deplored negotiations without transparency and inclusiveness.
Only one country voted against, Belarus, which prevented the adoption of the resolution by consensus as desired by its authors and imposed a public ballot.
Unlike approval by consensus, the ballot forced the 193 UN countries to reveal themselves.
Among the ten ASEAN countries (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), which had participated in the negotiation of the text initiated by Liechtenstein, itself supported by the West, only four abstained: Brunei, current president of Asean, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.
Notable feature of this election: Burma, represented by Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, sacked after the February coup but who continues to challenge the junta, voted in favor of the text.
After the ballot, the diplomat regretted that it took three months for the Assembly to adopt this resolution and that it was not more explicit on an arms embargo.
>> To read also on France 24: For the Ambassador of Burma to the UN, "the junta is responsible for crimes against humanity"
Among the countries that also abstained are Russia and Mali, where a second military coup in less than a year recently took place, Iran and Egypt. The UN General Assembly very rarely adopts resolutions condemning military coups or calling for limiting the weapons supplied to the target country.
"This is the broadest and most universal condemnation to date of the situation in Burma," said European Union (EU) Ambassador to the UN, Olof Skoog.
The resolution "sends a strong and powerful message. It delegitimizes the military junta, condemns its abuses and violence against its own people, and demonstrates its isolation in the eyes of the world," he said.
The resolution also calls for a return to democracy in Burma and the release of its civilian leaders.
"Months of atrocities"
"We absolutely must create the conditions for the restoration of democracy," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said before the vote was taken, hoping for a "very clear message" from the Assembly. The resolution also calls for the implementation of an ASEAN five-point plan including the appointment of an envoy and urges the Burmese armed forces "to immediately stop all violence against peaceful demonstrators". The text, co-sponsored by more than fifty states, also calls for unhindered humanitarian access to Burma and a visit by the UN envoy, Christine Schraner Burgener, who in the morning made a presentation of the situation in the UN Security Council.
At the closed-door meeting of the Council, initiated by London, no joint declaration was adopted due to persistent divisions among its members, diplomats told AFP. The resolution of the Assembly "calls on the member states of the UN to make the obvious: to stop supplying arms to Burma", reacted Human Rights Watch which militates since February for the imposition of an embargo on the weapons.
"Months of atrocities and serious human rights violations by junta security forces have repeatedly shown why no government should throw a single bullet at them. The UN Security Council should now step in and adopt its own resolution imposing a global arms embargo on Burma, "insisted Louis Charbonneau, UN director at HRW.
Today's resolution "is an opportunity to show that the world stands in solidarity with the people of Burma, not the military," which has perpetrated "horrific acts of violence against ordinary civilians," the Minister said. British Ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward.
More than 860 civilians have been killed in Burma since the military took full power on February 1, according to the UN and the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPP).
With AFP
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