Myanmar rejected on Saturday U.S. accusations that the military-ruled country is a security threat to the region.
Prompted by Washington, the U.N. Security Council agreed for the first time on Friday to discuss human rights in the Southeast Asian country.
The decision came after Myanmar’s rulers ordered opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to remain under house arrest for a further six months.
“These accusations are utterly wrong,” Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told reporters in Yangon. “For example, the accusation that we are developing nuclear power, we will refute this false accusation.”
The Security Council action fell short of adding the situation in Myanmar to the 15-member council’s formal agenda.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said he hoped U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan would agree to brief the council personally on Myanmar behind closed doors in the next few weeks.
No date was set for the briefing, which the council agreed to unanimously, and it was unclear if Annan would accept.
“I think it is quite important that the situation in Burma will now be before the council,” Bolton told reporters.
U.S. officials routinely refer to Myanmar as Burma, the country’s name before the ruling junta changed it in 1990.
U.S. criticizes failure to speak out
Putting the matter on the council’s formal agenda would have opened the way to further discussions as well as to official council statements and resolutions. But it also would have required the support of nine members if a vote was demanded.
The United States has unilaterally imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Myanmar, including a ban on most imports, and has criticized Asia-Pacific nations for failing to speak out against the country’s human rights record.
Suu Kyi, now 60, has been under house arrest since May 2003 and was told last week of the decision to extend her detention.
A Home Ministry source had originally said the extension was for a year, but on Saturday the government said it was six months. “Six months only, not one year,” the information minister said.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the army.
She has spent around 10 of the last 15 years either in prison or under house arrest as the military -- which has run Myanmar under various guises since 1962 -- has refused to loosen its grip on power.
