CSW welcomes East Timors call for arms embargo on Burma

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has welcomed a call from the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Dr Jose Ramos Horta, for a UN arms embargo on Burma’s military regime.

The East Timorese President said that the events of the past two years in Burma had "shocked the world".

"The deterioration in the political and humanitarian situation calls for a clear response by the international community," he said.

Dr Horta urged the United Nations “to increase and intensify its efforts”, and in particular, to introduce “a total, comprehensive, mandatory 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 own people,” he added.

Earlier this month, the regime rejected pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal against her continued house arrest.

“I deplore this decision,” said Dr Horta, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his part in East Timor’s struggle for freedom.

He described the Burma regime’s continued detention of Suu Kyi as an example of “its extraordinary inhumanity and intransigence”.

Benedict Rogers, CSW’s East Asia Team Leader, who has made almost 30 visits to Burma and its borders, said: “We are delighted that the President of East Timor has added his support to our calls for a universal arms embargo against the military regime in Burma.

“We believe his call will give our campaign momentum, and we urge other countries to follow by working to secure an arms embargo at the UN Security Council.”

Suu Kyi, the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent 14 of the past 20 years in one form of confinement or another. In May, just days before her period of house arrest was due to expire, she was moved from her home to the notorious Insein Prison, and put on trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest.

She was charged after an American, John Yettaw, reportedly swam across Inya Lake on May 3 to her house and refused to leave. Though he was sentenced to seven years, four with hard labour, he was released after US Senator Jim Webb visited the country last month.

Suu Kyi was most recently sentenced to 18 months house arrest. Her supporters believe this is to prevent her from participating in 2010 general elections under the regime.

Suu Kyi is the daughter of Burma’s independence hero General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947. She has been the face of Burma's pro-democracy movement for decades.

The regime came to power in a military coup in 1962 and is notorious for suppressing the opposition.