World Leaders Call for End to Myanmar Violence

RAY SUAREZ:

Now to the international response to the Burmese government's crackdown on monks and pro-democracy demonstrators. We get two perspectives. I'm joined in Washington by Indonesia's ambassador to the U.S., Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat. Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations yesterday expressed "revulsion" against the use of force against protesters in Myanmar.

And Mark Malloch Brown is with us, a British Foreign Office minister responsible for Asia, Africa and the United Nations. Previously, he served as the U.N.'s deputy secretary-general.

Gentlemen, welcome to you both.

Mr. Ambassador, let's start with you. Is ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, pressuring Myanmar's government to stop the crackdown?

SUDJADNAN PARNOHADININGRAT, Indonesian Ambassador to U.S.: Yes, they did. In fact, the minister of foreign affairs for ASEAN got together yesterday, working in New York, and they have expressed their concern over the situation in Myanmar. And we tried to as best as we can to pressure the government of Myanmar to do whatever possible, not to resort to violence.

RAY SUAREZ:

Are there other things beyond just delivering a strongly worded message that the other members of ASEAN can do, which include all of Burma's neighbors?

SUDJADNAN PARNOHADININGRAT:

Yes, of course, we have been doing it for a number of years. And we are trying to get harder words to be — message to be sent to the Myanmar government. And, of course, if we are going to do things, of course, then ASEAN is going to get together and decide for that, and for the time being.

RAY SUAREZ:

For now, then?

SUDJADNAN PARNOHADININGRAT:

Yes.

RAY SUAREZ:

OK.

And the British government, Mark Malloch Brown, you're members of both the permanent five of the Security Council and the E.U. And for better or worse, your country has a very long relationship with Myanmar. What have you been doing?

MARK MALLOCH BROWN, British Foreign Office Minister:

Well, Gordon Brown, our prime minister, immediately was one of the first to condemn this. And we've been working very hard in New York this week, with friends both in ASEAN, but in Europe and with the United States, to really try and use the Security Council and other means available to us to get as firm a condemnation as possible of what's happened, because there really is a sense of events poised precarious where they could, like in previous occasions, tip into really very large-scale violence, or where the message of the international community, expressed through ASEAN and through the Security Council, acts as a restraining hand on the government, and the situation backs away from violence. And that's what we're presently focused on.

RAY SUAREZ:

Today your prime minister, Gordon Brown, also expressed publicly the fear that the death toll in Myanmar is much higher than has been publicly expressed. What's he basing that on?

MARK MALLOCH BROWN:

Well, this is a very closed country. There's very limited media access. A lot of the Internet and internal communications has now been closed down. And so there are rumors going around that many more lives have been lost, but we just don't have good information. That is just one aspect of how this country has gotten left behind by the world, because its leadership have kept it so closed.