By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS,

AP

Posted: 2007-10-02 12:43:12

GENEVA (AP) – The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the Myanmar  government’s crackdown on opposition protests in a resolution Tuesday and urged an immediate investigation of the situation in the country.

The 47-nation council said it “strongly deplores continued violent repression of peaceful demonstrators in Myanmar, including through beatings, killings, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances.”

It is the first time the body has criticized a government other than Israel since replacing the discredited Human Rights Commission last year. The council, which lacks enforcement powers, is limited to focusing global attention on human rights offenders.

The resolution, proposed by European countries, was passed after discussions that included direct testimony from a Swedish diplomat who had been on a visit to Myanmar last month and witnessed security forces firing on unarmed civilians.

The top U.N. human rights official demanded that Myanmar be held to account for its “shocking response” to the protests.

“The Myanmar authorities should no longer expect that their self-imposed isolation will shield them from accountability,” said Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights. “The peaceful protests that we have witnessed in recent weeks and the shocking response by the authorities are only the most recent manifestations of the repression of fundamental rights and freedoms that have taken place for almost 20 years in Myanmar.”

As the council convened, Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.’s special envoy to Myanmar, met the leader of the regime, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and other top generals in the junta’s remote new capital, Naypyitaw, diplomats said.

Diplomats said Gambari then flew to Yangon to see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has come to symbolize the yearning for democracy in Myanmar, and who has been under house arrest for years.

The EU led the move for the special session by the Geneva-based rights organization following discussions in the Security Council and the General Assembly in New York.

In the Security Council, even China, which has been reluctant to criticize Myanmar, joined the 14 other nations in expressing concern over the violence, urging the country’s military rulers to exercise restraint and to allow Gambari into the country.

Myanmar’s military junta has said 10 people have been killed. Dissident groups say up to 200 have been slain and another 6,000 have been detained by security forces cracking down on opposition marches led by Buddhist monks.

“The government must give full account for its action during and after the protest, including precise and verifiable information on the number of people killed and injured as well as on the whereabouts and condition of those who have been arrested,” said Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court  justice.

The EU urged the council to “strongly condemn” the Myanmar government’s repression, but the language was toned down in negotiations that involved China and India.

Nyunt Swe, a diplomat representing Myanmar, told the council that his country was “under heavy political pressure from some Western countries” and that the protests were meant to escalate into a mass rally that could justify outside intervention.

“The government has firm evidence that these protests were being helped both financially and materially by internal and external anti-government elements,” Swe said. “The protests are the long-awaited chance for some Western countries to initiate an action to intervene in the country.”

The council has previously condemned alleged Israeli rights abuses in three special sessions. Its last emergency meeting was in December, when the politically divided body examined the situation in Sudan’s region of Darfur.

The council urged the government of Myanmar, also known as Burma, “to ensure full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” and to “bring to justice perpetrators of human rights violations, including for the recent violations of the rights of peaceful protesters.”

It also urged the government to release detainees, including Suu Kyi, immediately.

Associated Press writer Bradley S. Klapper contributed to this report