(AFP): An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council is underway on Myanmar during which it was due to discuss a draft text calling for a return to civilian power following the military coup.
The behind-closed-doors discussions, held by videoconference, started at 10am in New York (1500 GMT) and was expected to last two hours. According to an international news agency, the text, drafted by Britain, calls for Myanmar’s military to immediately release those unlawfully detained.
It would also call for the one-year state of emergency to be repealed and for all sides to adhere to democratic norms. To be adopted, it requires the support of China, Myanmar’s main supporter at the UN and a veto power.
Swiss diplomat Christine Schraner Burgener, the United Nations’ envoy to Myanmar, was to brief the 15-member council on the latest developments at Tuesday’s meeting.
Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday in a bloodless coup, detaining democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other top politicians — sparking an international outcry.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won November elections in a landslide, but the military now claims those polls were tainted by fraud. The last Security Council meeting on Myanmar was in September and was also behind closed doors.
