The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an unprecedented statement on Burma yesterday, in which he called on the UN Security Council to consider "the grave situation" in Burma "at the earliest opportunity" and promised to personally raise the situation with other world leaders. The statement comes after a major campaign by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and Burma Campaign UK to put pressure on the British Government to lead calls for the UN Security Council to discuss Burma.

The Prime Minister also said he is instructing the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, to discuss Burma with other European Union governments this week, and called for the UN Secretary-General, the UN General Assembly and the UN's human rights bodies "to give this alarming situation the attention it so patently deserves".

Gordon Brown's statement is the first time a British Prime Minister has personally issued such specific promises on Burma. It follows statements last week from US President George W Bush and British Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, and a personal telephone call from US First Lady Laura Bush to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in regard to the current crisis in Burma.

In response to continuing protests throughout Burma over the past two weeks against fuel price hikes, Burma's military regime has launched a severe crackdown. Over 150 people have been arrested, including almost all the leading pro-democracy activists. The regime has used militia armed with iron rods and bamboo sticks in violent assaults on peaceful protestors.

CSW's Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: "We warmly welcome the Prime Minister's significant statement in response to the current crisis in Burma. He has called for all the steps which we have been urging the UK Government to take for a long time. The situation in Burma has been badly neglected, and requires urgent action."


Notes to editors:

The protests in Burma, the largest in a decade, began on 19 August in response to the regime's decision to raise fuel prices. Hundreds of people have taken part in demonstrations almost every day in different parts of the country.

The military regime in Burma has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, remains under house arrest. Over 1,200 political prisoners are in jail. Torture is severe and widespread. The regime is guilty of the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labour, the forcible conscription of child soldiers, the use of human minesweepers, extra-judicial killings, the destruction of over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma since 1996 and the displacement of more than a million people.