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UN Secretary General calls on Burmese military to allow special envoy inside country

According to the statement, Antonio Guterres is "deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar"

UNITED NATIONS, February 15. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres contacted the Burmese military, urging them to allow the Organization’s special representative into the country, according to a statement that Secretary General’s spokesman Stefane Dujarric published Sunday.

According to the statement, the Secretary General is "deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar".

"He urges the military and the police to respect the citizens’ right for peaceful gatherings and not to persecute them. Reports of continued violence, intimidation and humiliation by security agencies are unacceptable," the statement says.

"The Secretary General calls on the military to immediately allow UN Special Representative Christine Schraner Burgener to visit Myanmar on acceptable terms, so that she can assess the situation personally," the statement says.

On February 5, Burgener had a phone call with Burmese Deputy Army Commander Soe Win. According to Dujarric, "it was a very important conversation, because it was the first contact that the UN was able to establish with the military authority since the coup."

On February 1, the Burmese military announced a one-year state of emergency and deposition of the country’s authorities, due to large-scale falsifications during the November elections. The next day, the Kyodo news agency reported several hundred apprehended people, including President Win Myint and the de-facto country leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won the election and was about to begin forming the cabinet. The military presented an updated cabinet membership, who has already assumed their offices.

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