S/PV.6161
6161st meeting
Monday, 13 July 2009, 11.30 a.m.
New York
The situation in Myanmar
Mr. Dabbashi (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (spoke in Arabic): I should like at the outset to thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and to commend his good offices efforts to promote stability and national reconciliation in Myanmar. We stress our support for his personal work and that of his Special Adviser, Mr. Gambari.
We also extend our thanks to the Permanent Representative of Myanmar for his statement.
We welcome the Secretary-General’s visit to Myanmar and his talks with the Government and other parties on that occasion. At the same time, we note his inability to meet with the opposition leader, Ms. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We regret that failure, despite our understanding of the position of the Myanmar authorities, as outlined by the Permanent Representative of that country earlier in this meeting.
We fully understand that the Secretary-General’s personal efforts and good offices, exercised through Mr. Gambari, have led to real movement and positive developments. While slow, such developments — first among which is the commitment of the Myanmar authorities to pursue their follow-up of the seven-step road map and, at the appropriate moment, to enact a law to regulate the 2010 elections — augur well for real progress. We hope that these efforts will advance the democratic process and achieve a lasting solution to all Myanmar’s problems.
We believe that dialogue with the Myanmar authorities must be pursued in order to encourage them to achieve the aims we all support and aspire to, above all the release of political prisoners and detainees, continued dialogue among the various parties, and the establishment of an atmosphere conducive to the organization of elections, the promotion of the rule of law and respect for human rights.
We hope that the Myanmar authorities will continue to cooperate with the United Nations and the international community in order to ensure national reconciliation, lay the foundations for the full participation of all political actors in the 2010 elections, and establish stability throughout the country. We believe that coordination between the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is also critical to achieving tangible and timely results.
In previous statements to the Council, my country has stressed that issues relating to the internal affairs of States must be addressed through consultation and constructive dialogue between the Government and political actors involved, with the assistance of the international community. We reiterate that point of view and commend the role played by ASEAN, its support for the good offices of the United Nations and its assistance to the people of Myanmar in achieving national reconciliation in their country. We hope that Myanmar will soon achieve political and economic stability, development and national reconciliation, and that its people will live in peace.
We emphasize that the future of Myanmar is exclusively in the hands of its people, who must work together to ensure that it will be a prosperous one.
