As co-author of a report, commissioned by the former Czech president Vaclav Havel and Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, calling for a UN Security Council resolution on Burma, I was surprised to read "A crack in the Burmese door" (Views, June 21), by Ibrahim Gambari, an under secretary general at the United Nations.
Gambari suggests that "sustained engagement may be the only way to arrive at a fuller assessment of the prospects for democratization, development and reconciliation." But since Burma's elections in 1990, 28 resolutions have been adopted by the UN General Assembly and the UN Commission on Human Rights urging change in the country, all to no avail. Diplomacy will only be truly successful if it is done under the mandate of the UN Security Council.
Most disturbing is the implication by Gambari that Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy actually support further engagement with the United Nations in lieu of action by the UN Security Council. The league does want further UN engagement, but under the auspices of the Security Council.
A binding UN Security Council resolution would give the United Nations diplomatic leverage to resolve Burma's ongoing crisis.