The UN Security Council issued a resolution this Wednesday (21) in which it asks the Myanmar regime to release former prime minister and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as other political prisoners.
This is the first resolution by the main United Nations body on the Asian country in 74 years. The document had the approval of 12 board members. China, Russia and India abstained, and no country voted against.
Symbol of Myanmar civil society’s struggle for democracy, Suu Kyi, 77, was overthrown and arrested in the February 2021 military coup.
Since then, the military junta that seized power in the country has been repressing protests for democracy. Security forces have killed more than 2,500 civilians in that period, according to human rights groups.
The resolution approved on Wednesday expresses “serious concern” with the state of emergency in force in the country since the military coup and urges Myanmar authorities to “immediately release all arbitrarily detained prisoners”, explicitly citing the cases of Suu Kyi and the former President Wint Myint.
The document also defends “respect for democratic institutions and the search for constructive dialogue and reconciliation in accordance with the will and interests of the people”.
The last Security Council resolution on Myanmar was adopted in 1948, and recommended the General Assembly to accept the country’s entry into the United Nations after its independence – until then, the region known as Burma was a British colony.
Differences between the permanent members of the council (USA, France, United Kingdom, Russia and China, which have the right to veto) had been preventing the approval of a resolution on Myanmar. Moscow and Beijing had been positioning themselves against more incisive action by the body against the Myanmar regime.
On Wednesday, the British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said that the resolution “sends a clear message to the people of Myanmar that we seek progress in line with their rights, wishes and interests”.
The Chinese ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said that “China still has concerns” and that “only Myanmar can solve its problems”.
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