Even as the US imposed new sanctions on Myanmar and urged others to follow suit, India on Wednesday said that Myanmar?s political reform process and national reconciliation should be more broad-based and hoped all sides would resolve their issues peacefully.
Responding to media queries, the spokesman of the foreign ministry said that, ??government is concerned at and is closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar.??
So far, at least three Buddhist monks were killed in clashes with Myanmar?s security forces who cracked down on protests against the ruling military junta in Yangon and other areas of the country.
Monks have used the Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon’s most revered temple, as a launch pad for their peaceful anti-government marches for the past nine days. The show of force, however, failed to stop them from marching elsewhere.
According to Navtej Sarna, official spokesman “It is our hope that all sides will resolve their issues peacefully through dialogue.
India has always believed that Myanmar’s process of political reform and national reconciliation should be more inclusive and broad-based,” he said.
President George W Bush announced new US sanctions against Myanmar’s military rulers and urged other countries to follow suit, saying Americans were “outraged” by rights abuses.
“The US will tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and their financial backers,” he said in his annual address to the UN General Assembly in New York.
“We will impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights.”
Yangon’s pagoda area was the scene of the worst bloodshed in a 1988 crackdown on protests in which 3,000 people are thought to have been killed. Myanmar has had 45 years of military rule.
The European Union urged the government and protesters “to exercise maximum restraint”.
“So far no violence has been used to quell the peaceful demonstrations. However, we are also concerned by an increasing military presence on the streets — more and more visible,” said a spokesman for the EU’s executive Commission.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged fellow EU heads of state to agree to “warn the Burmese government that we are watching their behaviour and that the EU will impose tougher sanctions if they make the wrong choices”.
“We need concerted international action to discourage violence. We need to stand together,” he wrote to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
France said it was warning Yangon against force “to repress the just political and social claims of the Myanmar people”.
Japan, in a Foreign Ministry statement, urged Myanmar to respond calmly and “take seriously the wishes of the people as evidenced by the demonstrations and begin talks with a view to achieving reconciliation and democratisation”.
