UN Security Council to hold emergency meet over Myanmar coup

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward is this month’s council president and said Monday that the council will look at “a range of measures” to uphold the Nov. 8 presidential election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and secure the release of the Nobel peace laureate and other leaders arrested by the military.

The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Tuesday on the military coup in Myanmar, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called “a serious blow to democratic reforms” in the Southeast Asian nation.

A file photo of the UN Security Council’s premises at the United Nations headquarters. (AP)

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward is this month’s council president and said Monday that the council will look at “a range of measures” to uphold the Nov. 8 presidential election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and secure the release of the Nobel peace laureate and other leaders arrested by the military.

Woodward says “at the moment, we don’t have specific ideas on measures.” At the U.N., that often means sanctions.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says the world body has been unable to contact officials in the capital and has no information on those being held.

Dujarric said the U.N. fears the military action “may make the situation worse” for the estimated 600,000 Rohingya that remain in northern Rakhine state, including 120,000 people “who are effectively confined to camps.”