Timor –Leste Backs Global Arms Embargo – First Asian Country To Support Embargo

The Burma Campaign UK today welcomed a statement from Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, calling on the United Nations to impose a global arms embargo on Burma.

Timor-Leste becomes the 32nd country to back a global arms embargo against Burma. Supporters of the Burma Campaign UK have been targeting the country asking it to support a global arms embargo. Campaigners are attempting to build a global consensus on a UN arms embargo against Burma, in order to help overcome expected opposition at the Security Council by Russia and China.

“We are very pleased to have the first Asian country backing our call from a global arms embargo,” said Zoya Phan, International Coordinator of Burma Campaign UK. “Momentum for an arms embargo is growing, and we call on other Asian countries to follow the lead of Timor-Leste in supporting an embargo. I would also like to thank the President for remembering my father, Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, who was assassinated by agents of the dictatorship last year, in his statement.”

Countries supporting a global arms embargo so far are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus,  Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA.

For more information contact Zoya Phan on 44(0)7738630139.

Statement from Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, 12th October 2009:
Earlier this month, Burma’s military regime provided a further example of its extraordinary inhumanity and intransigence, with its decision to reject the appeal by my fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi against the verdict last month which imposed a further term of eighteen months under house arrest. I deplore this decision, and call for her immediate and unconditional release.

The events of the past two years in Burma have shocked the world. The military regime’s brutal suppression of the peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007, followed by the assassination of Karen leader Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis, the sham constitutional referendum, the escalation in the military offensive against civilians in eastern Burma, the famine in Chin State, attacks on ethnic groups on the China-Burma border and the trial and continued imprisonment of my fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are all examples of the desperate political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in Burma today.

The deterioration in the political and humanitarian situation calls for a clear response by the international community. I welcome the initiatives taken by the UN Secretary-General, and the recent statements by the US Administration. I also welcome Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s clear reiteration of her call for dialogue with the regime. A combination of high-level, principled engagement with specific targeted pressure is what is required to bring the Generals to the negotiating table.

It is time for the international community to increase and intensify its efforts. In particular, it is time for the UN Security Council to introduce an arms embargo on the regime. There can be no justification for selling arms to a regime which has no external threats and uses those arms simply to suppress its owns people. As President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, I therefore call on all members of the UN Security Council to give serious consideration to this question, and to pass a resolution imposing a total, comprehensive, mandatory arms embargo.

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