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A reprieve for Myanmar junta

P.S. Suryanarayana

The U.S.' latest move on Myanmar, blocked by China and Russia at the U.N., is reflective of the new trend in world politics.

IT IS widely believed in the West that the end of the Cold War has led to the emergence of "global politics." Such politics is about plans and campaigns, often partisan in tone and substance, for international consensus on issues that had earlier divided the world.

It is in this climate that China and Russia on Friday vetoed in the United Nations Security Council a draft resolution on Myanmar. Moved by the United States and the United Kingdom, it sought to address Myanmar's internal political situation — a blatant denial of democracy. Yet for reasons pertaining to the Security Council's own limited mandate under the U.N. Charter, China and Russia stopped the U.S. in its tracks. So, Washington's move to bring Myanmar's military junta under the prism of "global politics" has failed.

For Than Shwe and Soe Win, the Generals who run Myanmar, this failure of the U.S. marks their reprieve at the hands of the larger international community. However, China and Russia have not given the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Myanmar's military government, a certificate of good behaviour. And the SPDC's statement of gratitude towards China and Russia does not mean the three countries acted in concert to thwart the U.S.

Grim reality

Nonetheless, the grim reality is that Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's celebrated democracy campaigner, will continue to remain in detention. In a sense, the failed draft did not signify an "open sesame" mantra for her instant release from house arrest.

The draft was more an intended censure than a plan of action backed by the possible use of military force against the Generals in Pyinmana, Myanmar's new seat of power, under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter. Yet its timing and political importance cannot be dismissed.

During the debate on the draft, China's Ambassador to the U.N., Wang Guangya, maintained that the Myanmar issue was "an internal matter of a sovereign state." Nor was the situation in Myanmar a threat to regional or global peace and stability.

On Saturday, China's Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told reporters in Cebu (Philippines) that Beijing's position was in accordance with the "spirit" of the U.N. Charter.

The sponsors deleted from their final draft a specific assertion that the Myanmar situation "poses serious risks to peace and security in the region." In a bid to stave off the anticipated vetoes, they merely wanted the Security Council to appeal to the SPDC to "take concrete steps" for ensuring the "unconditional release" of Ms. Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.

The genesis of the U.S. move can be traced to The Report on Burma, published in 2005. Commissioned by Vaclav Havel and Desmond Tutu, well-known international activists, the Report noted that the situation in Myanmar was far worse than that in several "failed states" where the U.N. had already intervened.

More importantly, the U.S. has now made bold to try and widen the emerging post-Cold War consensus among the Big Powers at the U.N. Russia and China have, in recent times, made common cause with the U.S. on non-proliferation, counter-terrorism, and some aspects of international security.

Encouraged by this, the U.S. is beginning to make a pitch for the inclusion of democracy in the emerging Big Power consensus. The name of the game is "global politics," which is seen by Strobe Talbott and other experts as the sequel to yesteryear's geopolitics.

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