China and Russia on Friday jointly vetoed a US-sponsored resolution criticising Myanmar’s human rights record, striking a blow to the Bush administration’s yearlong campaign to use the UN Security Council to spotlight the repressive rule of Myanmar’s military junta. Friday’s vote was part of a broader diplomatic effort by Beijing and Moscow to prevent the United States and its Western allies from using the 15-nation council to censure some of the world’s worst most abusive regimes, including governments in Belarus, Sudan and Zimbabwe. They were joined by one of the council’s most influential Third World countries, South Africa, which also opposed the US resolution on the grounds that the Security Council has no mandate to scold or sanction Myanmar for abuses conducted on its own soil. “We believe that the situation in this country does not pose any threat to international or regional peace; this opinion is shared by a large number of states, including most importantly those neighbouring Myanmar,” Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told the council. “We find that attempts aimed at using the Security Council to discuss issues outside its purview are unacceptable.”The United States secured nine votes for the resolution in the 15-nation council. Congo, Qatar and Indonesia abstained, arguing that the UN Human Rights Council was the appropriate venue for addressing Myanmar’s human rights record. Despite the tepid support for the US initiative, virtually all council members—including China—expressed concerns about Myanmar’s behavior. Indonesia’s UN envoy, Rezlan Ishar Jenie, urged Myanmar’s regime to heed international calls to restore “democracy and human rights” to the country. The Bush administration’s acting UN ambassador, Alejandro Wolff, said the US was “deeply disappointed” by the council’s failure to confront Myanmar. But he said the United States decided to force an unsuccessful vote to assure the Burmese people that “we won’t forget you.”The vote initially faced resistance from some officials saying it would damage US and European relations with China while exposing the depth of Third World opposition. -Colum Lynch
