YANGON, (Reuters) – China urged the world yesterday to respect Myanmar’s judicial sovereignty, suggesting Beijing would not back any U.N. action against the junta for returning opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into detention.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said it was time for dialogue with Myanmar, not criticism, as outraged Western nations pressed for a U.N. statement denouncing the sentence imposed on the Nobel Peace laureate on Tuesday.
“This not only accords with Myanmar’s interests, it is also beneficial to regional stability,” she said in a statement. “International society should fully respect Myanmar’s judicial sovereignty.”
China is one of the few nations that stands by the military government, which has been condemned internationally since it sentenced Suu Kyi, 64, to three years detention for violating an internal security law.
The junta, which has ruled the country with an iron fist for almost five decades, said immediately it would halve the sentence and allow her to serve it at her Yangon home.
Analysts said the move may have been an attempt to appease China, India, Thailand and others whose trade has propped up a state crippled by international sanctions. The European Union said it was preparing further sanctions.
At the United Nations, major powers haggled yesterday over the text of a statement on the sentence. “We’ve made some further progress,” British Ambassador John Sawers, current Security Council president, told reporters after meeting fellow envoys from the United States, France, Russia and China.
“We’ve still got some more work to do. We believe we’re moving in the right direction.”
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar, on Wednesday expressed “deep disappointment” about Suu Kyi’s sentence. It followed similar statements by member nations that stopped short of criticizing the regime.
ASEAN maintains a policy of quiet diplomacy and non-interference in the internal affairs of its members, but the junta’s refusal to improve its human rights record has been the main source of tension within the 10-member bloc.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party condemned the ruling because it was based on a law from Myanmar’s 1974 constitution, which is no longer in use.
