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UN Security Council To Hold Emergency Meeting Over Myanmar

  The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday on the situation in Myanmar, following the coup by the country’s military, according … Continue reading UN Security Council To Hold Emergency Meeting Over Myanmar


This combination of pictures created on February 1, 2021 shows (top L) Myanmar's President Win Myint during a visit to New Delhi on February 27, 2020, (top R) Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bangkok on November 4, 2019, (bottom L) Myint Swe, then the Yangon division chief minister, delivering a speech in Yangon on February 12, 2013, and (bottom R) Myanmar's Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, saluting during a ceremony to mark the 71th anniversary of Martyrs' Day in Yangon on July 19, 2018. Soe Than WIN, Prakash SINGH, Lillian SUWANRUMPHA, Ye Aung THU / AFP
This combination of pictures created on February 1, 2021 shows (top L) Myanmar’s President Win Myint during a visit to New Delhi on February 27, 2020, (top R) Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bangkok on November 4, 2019, (bottom L) Myint Swe, then the Yangon division chief minister, delivering a speech in Yangon on February 12, 2013, and (bottom R) Myanmar’s Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, saluting during a ceremony to mark the 71th anniversary of Martyrs’ Day in Yangon on July 19, 2018. Soe Than WIN, Prakash SINGH, Lillian SUWANRUMPHA, Ye Aung THU / AFP
This combination of pictures created on February 1, 2021 shows (top L) Myanmar's President Win Myint during a visit to New Delhi on February 27, 2020, (top R) Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bangkok on November 4, 2019, (bottom L) Myint Swe, then the Yangon division chief minister, delivering a speech in Yangon on February 12, 2013, and (bottom R) Myanmar's Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, saluting during a ceremony to mark the 71th anniversary of Martyrs' Day in Yangon on July 19, 2018. Soe Than WIN, Prakash SINGH, Lillian SUWANRUMPHA, Ye Aung THU / AFP
This combination of pictures created on February 1, 2021 shows (top L) Myanmar’s President Win Myint during a visit to New Delhi on February 27, 2020, (top R) Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi at the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bangkok on November 4, 2019, (bottom L) Myint Swe, then the Yangon division chief minister, delivering a speech in Yangon on February 12, 2013, and (bottom R) Myanmar’s Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces, saluting during a ceremony to mark the 71th anniversary of Martyrs’ Day in Yangon on July 19, 2018. Soe Than WIN, Prakash SINGH, Lillian SUWANRUMPHA, Ye Aung THU / AFP

 

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday on the situation in Myanmar, following the coup by the country’s military, according to an official calendar of events.

The meeting, to be held by videoconference, will take place behind closed doors, says the calendar — which was approved Monday by council members.

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The UN special envoy for Myanmar, Swiss diplomat Christine Schraner Burgener, is expected to brief the council on the latest developments at the meeting.

Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a bloodless coup, detaining democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other top politicians — sparking an international outcry.

Britain, which holds the rotating Council presidency for the month of February, had long planned to hold a meeting on Myanmar this week, but moved it up given the circumstances.

In this file photograph taken on November 3, 2019, Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi looks on as she attends the 10th ASEAN-UN Summit in Bangkok, on the sidelines of the 35th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.  Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP

 

The country’s UN envoy, Barbara Woodward, told reporters that she hoped to have “as constructive a discussion as possible on Myanmar and look at a range of measures, with the idea of respecting the people’s will expressed in the vote and releasing civil society leaders.”

“We’ll want to consider measures that will move us towards that end,” Woodward said, while noting there were no specific measures in mind at the current time.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won November elections in a landslide, but the military now claims those polls were tainted by fraud.

Earlier, at his daily press conference, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “What is important is that the international community speak with one voice.”

AFP