AP

Posted: 2007-09-28 06:23:54

GENEVA (AP) – The U.N. Human Rights Council will call an emergency session to examine the Myanmar  government attempt to crush demonstrations in which at least 10 people have been killed, diplomats said Friday.

The crackdown on opposition marches led by Buddhist monks has drawn condemnation from Myanmar’s neighbors and Western powers, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon has dispatched a special envoy to the Southeast Asian nation to seek a solution to the crisis.

The Geneva-based council was criticized earlier this week by an independent U.N. rights expert for failing to take Myanmar to task over its abuses.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who was appointed as the U.N’s independent expert on human rights in Myanmar seven years ago, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that world leaders “need to act or there will be a disaster, and the international community will be responsible for what happens in Myanmar.”

The emergency session is being called because a petition led by Western countries gained the support of a third of the body’s 47 nations.

Since replacing the discredited Human Rights Commission last year the council has held three special meetings to examine alleged Israeli human rights violations and one to look at the violence in Sudan’s Darfur region.

U.S. President George W. Bush  called earlier this week for reform of the council, citing America’s disappointment with its failure to scrutinize the world’s worst human rights violators while focusing its criticism “exclusively” on Israel.