South Africa should have condemned Burma’s military regime and supported a call for sanctions against it, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday.
It joined others who have criticised the country using its inaugural vote at the United Nations Security Council earlier in January to vote against a resolution demanding an end to human rights abuses in Burma.
The government explained its vote by saying that the matter fell outside the mandate of the Security Council and properly belonged to the UN Human Rights Council.
It said it was voting the way it did to point out procedural problems.
Over the weekend, the African National Congress (ANC) lekgotla (meeting) endorsed the government’s position.
Cosatu, one of the ANC’s alliance partners, joined Archbishop Desmond Tutu, several opposition parties and others in condemning the vote.
Cosatu cited several examples of ”flagrant contravention of human rights as well as international and domestic law” in Burma.
”Cosatu will continue to work closely with the International Trade Union Confederation to end the [Burma] regime’s use of forced labour and its brutal suppression of human rights, and will campaign in solidarity with the people of the country in their struggle to bring about genuine democratic transformation,” the federation said. — Sapa