New York - US President George W Bush on Tuesday urged the United Nations to confront despotic governments and announced the United States will enact more sanctions on Myanmar in response to the ruling military junta's crackdown against democratic activists. Bush singled out Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe as countries the international community must pressure to force the governments to introduce more freedom.
"The mission of the United Nations requires liberating people from tyranny and violence," Bush said during the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Bush called on countries to do more to help the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon and support their effort to build democratic governments. He urged all nations to combat terrorism to defeat its "dark ideology."
"All civilized nations must work together to stop them by sharing intelligence about their networks, and choking off their finances, and bringing to justice their operatives," Bush said.
Despite the great deal of international interest in Iraq, Bush made little mention of the conflict that has defined his administration as it heads into its final year in January.
Instead he focused on the importance of promoting freedom and liberty that the war in Iraq has come to symbolize for him and his effort to bring change to the Middle East. He also discussed the need to address poverty and diseases like malaria and HIV/AIDS.
Bush urged the US Congress to back an initiative to purchase agricultural products from African nations to help develop their local economies, rather than just shipping in food from the US to address hunger.
"This would help break the cycle of famine in the developing world," Bush said.
Bush reiterated his support for the stalled Doha world trade talks designed to lower trade barriers for exports from developing countries into the United States, European Union and other rich countries.
Bush also criticized the world body's Human Rights Council for failing to speak out against violations in the world, ranging from Cuba to Venezuela and North Korea and Iran, while turning its attention "excessively on Israel."
"The American people are disappointed by the failures of the Human Rights Council," Bush said.
The United Nations created the Human Rights Council in March 2006 to replace the dysfunctional Commission on Human Rights. Washington opposed the move, saying the reforms did not go far enough to prevent some of the world's worst violators of human rights from gaining membership.
Bush said the latest sanctions on Myanmar will consists of travel bans and the freezing of assets of the junta's members, a group that has subjected the country to a "19-year reign of fear." The Bush administration has previously imposed sanctions on the South Asian country, also known as Burma, because of widespread repression and harsh treatment of democratic activists.
"The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable," he said.
Bush's announcement came as up to 100,000 protestors took to the streets in cities throughout Myanmar on Monday in some of the largest demonstrations in years, even though the regime banned the events.
The world also needed to do more the pressure the repressive regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Bush said.
The United Nations also had to promote free speech in Cuba as the rule of "cruel dictator" Fidel Castro nears an end, Bush said. Castro has been ill for more than a year and has handed power to his brother, Raul, on an interim basis.
The United Nations must live up to its agreement to deploy a peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur region, where people continue losing their lives to genocide, Bush said.
