US Ambassador Wants Burma on the UN Security Council Agenda

By Lalit K Jha
May 8, 2007
BBC
Original Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=7059&z=163
  
Burma continues to be a significant item on the agenda of the United States of America at the Unite Nations, according to the new US Ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad.
Khalilzad, who assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of May, said he is working to introduce the issue of Burma to the Security Council.
“We have the issue [human rights violation and restoration of democracy] on the agenda, I think, for the month. We will work with others,” Khalilzad told The Irrawaddy on Monday while visiting the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan at the UN.
Khalilzad served as the American envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq before being posted to the United Nations.
He said the US government was committed to fight for the cause of human rights protection throughout the world.
“Burma is important for us,” he said.
In spite of the veto by China and Russia of the US and British-sponsored motion to put Burma on the agenda of the Security Council earlier this year, the US will continue to raise the issue of human rights violations by the Burmese military government, Khalilzad said.
“Some of our friends in the UN Security Council do not share our approach, he said. I will keep working on it.”
Meanwhile, Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma said it is time the Security Council took up the case of human rights violations in Burma.
“It is amazing that so many villages have been destroyed in Burma by the military rulers, and the Security Council remains silent,” Woodrum said.