World urges restraint amid Myanmar protests

World urges restraint amid Myanmar protests
Agence France-PresseLast updated 11:45am (Mla time) 09/25/2007
UNITED NATIONS -- World governments Tuesday called on Myanmar's junta to show restraint after it threatened to "take action" against Buddhist monks leading the country's largest protests in nearly 20 years.
While they voiced their support for the swelling ranks of protesters -- who numbered 100,000 Monday in Myanmar's main city Yangon -- the White House said US President George W. Bush would tighten sanctions against regime figures.
He was to announce the measures in a speech later Tuesday at the UN General Assembly as part of a campaign "to try and force the regime into a change," US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters.
"I think there has been an increasing awareness about the viciousness of this regime and the opportunity we might have actually to get a transition," Hadley said.
Australia called on China and India to pressure the junta into exercising restraint.
Those Asian giants, along with Myanmar's fellow members of the ASEAN group of Southeast Asian nations, carried more clout than the West, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
"I think the voices that the Burmese military leadership hear the loudest are the voices of China and India much more than the voices of ASEAN, and they certainly don't focus very much on the voices of Western countries," said Downer.
Speaking from New York, Downer hailed the protesters for "showing enormous courage in a country which has a military leadership which is only too willing to crack down on any dissent."
ASEAN countries have long been reluctant to confront Myanmar, which joined the group 10 years ago, but as protests mount observers say they risk losing credibility if they fail to act.
On Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to the calls for restraint.
Ban "commends the peaceful approach the demonstrators are using to press their interests and he calls upon the Myanmar authorities to continue to exercise restraint," he said in a statement.
Malaysia's foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said the junta "must now take notice" after Monday's rallies drew 100,000 people onto the streets of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city.
"We believe that reconciliation is the best process for peaceful transition to democracy," he told Agence France-Presse on the margins of the UN Assembly, warning of "dire consequences" if the junta failed to respond quickly.
"It is best that they proceed on the reconciliation process so that they do not have to be forced into a situation where there can be very serious repercussions," he added.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered his support to protestors in Myanmar -- formerly called Burma -- and other countries.
"There is a golden thread of common humanity that across nations and faiths binds us together, and it can light the darkest corners of the world," Brown said.
"A message should go out to anyone facing persecution, anywhere from Burma and Zimbabwe: human rights are universal and no injustice can last forever," said Brown.
In a message released in Paris, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama urged the military government not to react with violence.
“I extend my support and solidarity with the recent peaceful movement for democracy in Burma,” he said in a message datelined Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile in northern India.
"I fully support their call for freedom and democracy and take this opportunity to appeal to freedom-loving people all over the world to support such non-violent movements," he said.
France has called on the junta to reform and protect the demonstrators, while Germany and Ireland have also expressed sympathy with the protesters.