Burma democracy party hails push for UN resolution

1 June (AFP) - Burma's pro-democracy party, led by detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, praised the US call for a United Nations resolution against the military regime and said it was a boost for the nation's people.

The United States said Wednesday it would pursue an unprecedented UN Security Council resolution calling on Burma's military rulers to change their repressive policies.

"As far as we know from the media, there could be a UN resolution on Burma. It would be a very rare success," Lwin, spokesman for the National League for Democracy, told AFP.

"We have to hope that it would bring benefits for the people," he said. But he also said it was impossible to know how the nation's military rulers would react to a Security Council resolution.

"We cannot say whether they would obey the resolution or not," he said. No one has pushed for a resolution on Burma at the council so far despite continual international condemnation for nearly two decades over alleged human rights abuses by the junta in the Southeast Asian state.

The US State Department said after a rare Security Council briefing on Burma Wednesday that Washington "intends to pursue" such a resolution that would "underscore the international community's concerns about the situation" there.

The announcement came just days after the regime extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest by another year, in defiance of a direct appeal by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the junta leader Senior General Than Shwe.

The military regime usually ignores international pressure, and has insisted that Aung San Suu Kyi's detention is a "domestic issue". The 60-year-old democracy leader has spent a decade in detention over the past 17 years.

Independent politician Win Naing said the military government may have underestimated the international reaction to the latest extension. "The SPDC (the State Peace and Development Council) government should relax the overly done restriction," he said, referring to the junta by its official name.

The National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but they were never allowed to take office.