But does not block nor reject same reso calling for Aung San Suu Kyi release
(Eagle News)–The Philippines has “dissociated” itself from a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution that called for the release of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi and called for a UN monitoring team in the country.
In explaining the move, the Philippines, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, said in a letter to the UNHRC that it “cannot stress strongly enough the primacy of national internal efforts towards democratic reforms, and never by the imposition of foreign solutions whether in regional or multilateral contexts, including through this Council.”
“We reaffirm our support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar,” the Philippines said.
Although the Philippines did not join the consensus of the 47-member Council to adopt unanimously without a vote the resolution set forth by the European Union and the United Kingdom, it did not block nor reject it.
It also noted it “will settle for nothing less than, and nothing else but the complete restoration of the status quo in which Myanmar had made so much progress,” noting that the Philippines “has been supportive of Myanmar’s progress towards a fuller democracy, cognizant of the Army’s role in preserving its territorial integrity and national security, as well as the unifying role of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the history of the country and Army her father founded.”
“The Lady is a deeply and widely admired icon of democracy among the Filipino people who identify with her and her people, given similar struggles against tyranny in the not distant past; struggles that culminated in the complete restoration of democracy by unprecedented and entirely domestic efforts that inspired similarly successful efforts in the rest of the Cold War world,” the Philippines said.
According to the Philippines, the restoration of the status quo ante
was the way “the full realization of this democratic process can only be achieved.”
Apart from the Philippines, China, Russia, Venezuela and Bolivia dissociated themselves from the consensus.
Suu Kyi has been in detention since the military staged a coup, citing widespread electoral fraud.
