Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement that Burma had acted with “total disregard for accepted standards of the rule of law”.
“This is a purely political sentence,” he said. “The UN Security Council, whose will has been flouted, must also now respond resolutely and impose a worldwide ban on the sale of arms to the regime.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement that the verdict was “brutal and unjust”. He called on the EU to impose new sanctions on the Burmese regime targeting “the resources that they directly profit from”, the wood and ruby sectors in particular.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said the sentence was “outrageous”. He called on the UN Security Council to impose a universal arms embargo on the regime and establish a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity.
“The charges were fabricated, the trial was a sham and the outcome was almost certainly pre-determined,” he said.
“No one can expect justice in Burma today under this brutal and illegitimate regime.
“It is time now for the UN Security Council to respond promptly to this latest example of the regime’s criminal behaviour by passing a resolution as a matter of urgency.”
Mr Thomas said the UN resolution must spell out clear benchmarks for the regime to meet accompanied by deadlines and sanctions “that will be imposed until there is meaningful and irreversible change”.
He added: “Burma’s Senior General Than Shwe must not be allowed to continue to perpetrate his crimes with impunity.”
