UN rights council to hold emergency session on Myanmar

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency session to examine the Myanmar government attempt to crush demonstrations in which at least 10 people have been killed, the body's president said on Friday.

The crackdown on opposition marches led by Buddhist monks has drawn condemnation from Myanmar's neighbors and Western powers, and UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon has dispatched a special envoy to the Southeast Asian nation to seek a solution to the crisis.

The Geneva-based council was criticized earlier this week by an independent UN rights expert for failing to take Myanmar to task over its abuses.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who was appointed as the UN's independent expert on human rights in Myanmar seven years ago, said on Wednesday that world leaders “need to act or there will be a disaster, and the international community will be responsible for what happens in Myanmar.”

The council's president, Doru Costea of Romania, said the session was requested for Tuesday by 17 countries, thus gaining the necessary support of a third of the body's 47 members.

Diplomats said the petition was led by Western countries. Since replacing the discredited Human Rights Commission last year the council has held three special meetings to examine alleged Israeli human rights violations and one to look at the violence in Sudan's Darfur region.

US President George W. Bush called earlier this week for reform of the council, citing America's disappointment with its failure to scrutinize the world's worst human rights violators while focusing its criticism ``exclusively'' on Israel.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com