New South Wales Will Not Acknowledge Burma's Election

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The upper house of Parliament of New South Wales passes a unanimous resolution not to acknowledge Burma's election unless the ruling junta revises the Constitution and releases political prisoners.

The upper house of Parliament in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) passed a unanimous resolution on Tuesday not to acknowledge Burma's election unless Burma's ruling junta revises the 2008 Constitution and releases all political prisoners, including main opposition leader Aung San Su Kyi.

The resolution was submitted to the NSW upper house on Sunday by Dr. John Kaye, a senator from the Australian Greens party and the president of the Australian Coalition for Democracy in Burma.

“The regime will get the message that they cannot get recognition from the international community. We see this matter is important,” Dr. Myint Cho, the Burma Campaign Australia (BCA) spokesman, told the Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

“The BCA will cooperate closely with Sen. Kaye to put Australian government pressure on Burma,” Dr. Cho said.

Australia has long enforced an embargo on the delivery of arms to Burma and added financial sanctions in 2007.

In New Zealand, the representative of the National Council of the Union of Burma, Naing Ko Ko, met on Tuesday with six current members of the New Zealand Parliament and Maryan Street, a former member who in 2007 founded the New Zealand Burma Cross Party Support Group.

“They discussed what is possible,” Naing Ko Ko told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. “I urge the New Zealand Parliament and government to join and sign onto the crime against community campaign which was conducted by England and Australia in the United Nations.   I also urge New Zealand to put more pressure on Burma in the United Nations Security Counsel meeting.”