HIGHER CASUALTIES
Gambari, adressing an open meeting of the Council whose audience included around a dozen Buddhist monks in robes, said there were unconfirmed reports that casualties were much higher than the handful reported by the government.
The junta says 10 people were killed in the crackdown on the biggest challenge to the junta in nearly 20 years, though Western governments say the toll is likely to be far higher.
Addressing the Council, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for "bold actions" by the military government toward democratization and respect for human rights.
"The use of force against peaceful demonstrators is abhorrent and unacceptable," he said.
China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, however, reiterated Beijing's view that Myanmar posed no threat to international peace and security, a condition for Security Council action. China borders Myanmar and is one of the country's few allies and major trading partners.
Pressure, he said, "will not help address the problem but might lead to mistrust and confrontation."
Myanmar's U.N. Ambassador Kyaw Tint Swe urged the U.N. not to take action in the Security Council and said many of those detained had now been released.
"To date ... a total of 2,095 people, including 722 monks, have been released," he said. "More releases will follow."
Despite China's opposition, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Washington was prepared to introduce a resolution in the Security Council imposing sanctions.
"We must all be prepared to consider measures such as arms embargoes," Khalilzad told the Council, urging Myanmar's neighbors to exert the maximum pressure to get the military government there to cooperate with Gambari's efforts.
In Washington, the United States called on the junta to talk to Suu Kyi without conditions and U.S. charge d'affaires Shari Villarosa went to the new capital, Naypyidaw, to urge it to begin a "meaningful dialogue" with opposition groups.
"It was not a terribly edifying meeting from our perspective," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, adding that Villarosa's meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint produced no breakthroughs.
Singapore, a leading investor in Myanmar, said sanctions should not be ruled out but questioned their impact against the ruling junta and the damage they might do to future reconciliation talks.
"This should not be an excuse for delaying necessary steps forward," Singapore's U.N. Ambassador Vanu Gopala Menon said at the Council debate. "But neither do we want a Yugoslavia in Southeast Asia," he added, referring to the Balkan country's disintegration amid ethnic warfare in the 1990s.
