UN Security Council Condemns Violence in Myanmar

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You heard a little bit, obviously, about what the Myanmar ambassador was saying there, thanking you for your unanimous statement, but, nonetheless, between the lines seeing that it was potentially a watered-down statement. You didn’t use the word coup. There was no prescriptive measures that you decided or discussed about trying to help them restore democracy. What do you say to that? And what more can the United Nations do?

BARBARA WOODWARD, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, good afternoon, Christiane. And, first, I should salute the courage of Ambassador Tun and his eloquence. As he said, this is — we’re talking about losing our future, as he said so eloquently. And we have seen so many young people on the streets of Myanmar, Ma Kyal Sin killed wearing a T-shirt saying, “Everything will be OK.” The images are truly harrowing. And I think that was partly what helped us bring the Security Council together. Now, in our statement yesterday, we unequivocally condemned the violence and we called very clearly on the military to exercise restraint. And we were clear that we would continue to monitor the situation, which is the basis for further action. It’s true that we didn’t use the word coup. But the U.K., of course, has been very clear that we condemn the coup as the U.K., and we have taken sanctions against 25 of the military leaders. We have now got a trade review under way preventing trade, which would fund some of the military, as well as making sure none of our aid goes to the military, while helping on a humanitarian level. So for the U.N., we still have a range of tools. But we are trying to send a clear message to the — for to the junta that — but also to open up the space for mediation. And it was quite interesting, I thought, that the Chinese tweeted yesterday, after we published the statement, that it was a time for de-escalation, diplomacy, and dialogue. So, we’re trying to end the violence in order to create space to work our way towards a solution and back to peace.