Reps move to include Myanmar in UN agenda

Cebu City south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in the House of Representatives, adopted two resolutions urging the Philippine government and all member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to support the call of the international community for the inclusion of Myanmar in the agenda of the United Nations Security Council.

House Resolution 1040 of Cuenco and HR 996 of Akbayan Reps. Loretta Ann Rosales, Mario Joyo Aguja and Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel state that the UN Security Council can determine the existence of any threat to peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression in a country.

It is also empowered to intervene, whenever it deems necessary, at any stage of a dispute, to ensure prompt and effective action to safeguard peace and security.

In the resolutions, the lawmakers stated that Myanmar is under a military junta called the State Peace and Development Council, which continues to commit human rights violations against its people.

They cited the September 20, 2005 report of Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, and Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, that called on the Security Council to immediately include Myanmar in its priority agenda.

The Havel-Tutu report, according to the lawmakers, stated that the situation in Myanmar is causing serious and possibly permanent problems compared to any country that the Security Council has previously intervened in, such as Cambodia in 1990, Liberia in 1992, Rwanda and Haiti in 1993, Yemen in 1994, Afghanistan in 1996 and Sierra Leone in 1997.

The same report enumerated several factors that could become the bases of the Security Council's action in Myanmar, including the ouster of a democratically-elected government, the conflict between government bodies and insurgent armies or armed ethnic groups, the widespread internal humanitarian and human rights violations, the substantial outflow of refugees, and other cross-border problems like drug trafficking and HIV/AIDS, the authors said.

On September 23, 2005, the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus endorsed the Havel-Tutu report and resolved that if there is no progress in human rights situation in Myanmar within 12 months, it could be forced to initiate steps to nullify the membership of Myanmar in the regional grouping, they added.

During the recent meeting of the Committee on the measures, Assistant Secretary Aladin Villacorte of the Department of Foreign Affairs' Office of United Nations and Other International Organizations said that the Philippines is in no position to bring the Myanmar issue to the UN Security Council. The country is not a permanent member of the UN Security Council, he said, thus, it has "no voice in the (council) with respect to Myanmar's worsening situation."

But Cuenco remarked that even if the Philippines is no longer part of the UN Security Council, it can still get the agenda across through other member nations through informal avenues.

Cuenco also mentioned that Myanmar is invited to the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentarians Organization meeting on September 10 to 15, 2006 in Cebu.

However, he said, since AIPO is composed of parliamentarians elected by the people, Myanmar cannot be a member of the organization because it is under a military junta with no parliament to speak of. - Garry B. Lao