Burma Agrees to Accept UN Envoy Amid Condemnation for Violent Crackdown

Burma has agreed to accept a special envoy from the United Nations as leaders around the world call on the military government to halt its violent crackdown on protesters in Rangoon.

The United Nations Secretary General's office said Thursday that Burma has agreed to allow special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to visit the country.

In a statement read Thursday by press secretary Dana Perino, Mr. Bush urged the Burmese government not to use force and not to stand in the way of its people's desire for freedom.

The U.S. government also announced it was imposing sanctions against 14 senior Burmese government officials.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York told member state Burma to immediately cease using violence against demonstrators.

Japan says it will lodge its own protest after a Japanese video journalist was struck by a stray bullet and killed while covering Thursday's demonstrations in Rangoon. Japan's chief cabinet secretary Nobutaka Machimura condemned the Burmese government's actions and said Japan would seek clarification over the circumstances of 50-year-old Kenji Nagai's death.

Burmese dissidents and local members of the public Thursday demonstrated solidarity with marchers in Rangoon by holding protests in Thailand along the Burmese border and at Burmese embassies around the world.

Also, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the brutal reaction of Burmese authorities and proposing new targeted sanctions.

Singapore - which currently chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - called on the Burmese military to exercise utmost restraint and accept a United Nations initiative to defuse the situation.

Following calls from the United States, Australia and other countries to use its influence, China issued its first call for restraint.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters that Beijing is very concerned about the situation in neighboring Burma. She said China hopes all parties in Burma properly handle the situation and exercise restraint.

China has close economic relations with mineral-rich Burma and has provided its military with weapons.

The vice president of the European Parliament, Edward McMillan-Scott, told reporters the international community should consider boycotting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games if China does nothing to stop the violence in Burma. He said the Olympics are the only lever the world has to use with China, which he called Burma's puppet master.

ENDS

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