Burmese Junta Expels U.N. Official
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BANGKOK — Burmese military government ordered the expulsion of the top U.N. diplomat in the country yesterday in response to the envoy’s criticism of the regime.
The move came a day before U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was to return to Burma to continue promoting reconciliation between the junta and the country’s pro-democracy movement, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The U.N. said Mr. Gambari will tell the ruling junta that the U.N. leadership in Burma has the support of Secretary-General Ban.
America condemned the expulsion of U.N. Resident Coordinator Charles Petrie.
“This outrageous action … is an insult to the United Nations and the international community,” a spokesman for the National Security Council, Gordon Johndroe, said.
The junta gave a note to foreign diplomats and U.N. representatives that accused Mr. Petrie of going beyond his duties and “expressed the government’s intention not to continue his assignment here,” a spokesman for the United Nations Information Center, Aye Win, said from Rangoon, Burma’s largest city.
Mr. Petrie, like other U.N. officials and diplomats, serves in Burma only with the consent of its government and was not expected to stay without an invitation.
His office said on October 24 that Burma’s government was not meeting the economic and humanitarian needs of its people, and that that was the cause of September’s mass pro-democracy protests, which were violently put down by the government.
“The concerns of the people have been clearly expressed through the recent peaceful demonstrations, and it is beholden on all to listen,” the office said.
The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to openly breach protocol, said the note made clear that the government no longer wants Mr. Petrie to continue serving in Burma, but did not say what it intended to do about it.
The note was delivered after a briefing on the economy for the diplomats in the country’s capital Naypyitaw.
Mr. Ban “is disappointed by the message from the government of Myanmar,” a spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said at U.N. headquarters in New York. “The secretary-general has full confidence in the United Nations country team and its leadership and appreciates their contribution to the improvement of the socio-economic and humanitarian conditions for the people of Myanmar.”
