U.N. Warns Against Action On Brazil Embassy In Honduras

A top United Nations official said Monday that any action taken by the de facto Honduran government of Roberto Micheletti against the Brazilian Embassy, where ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya took refuge, would be a disaster.

Responding to published reports that the de facto government had given the Brazil Embassy 10 days to decide whether to grant Zelaya asylum or hand him over to it, Under-Secretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe told a news conference at the U.N. Headquarters in New York that the situation in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa took a grave turn following the threats held out against the Brazilian Embassy.

Expressing the world body’s concern over the worsening situation as the de facto government upped the ante– threatening to close Brazil’s Embassy for harbouring Zelaya, closing media outlets and denying entry to four mediators from the Organisation of American States (OAS)–he said it would be a disaster if any action was taken that violated international law on the inviolability of embassies.

Pascoe said the U.N. was willing to provide whatever help it could to resolve the crisis, and extended its full support to the efforts of Costa Rican President Óscar Arias Sánchez to mediate.

The warning came after the Security Council stressed Friday the need to ensure the security and sanctity of the Brazilian Embassy where Zelaya surfaced last week after being ousted by the military in June.

Meanwhile, Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Isabel Rodas Baca, in an address to the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, expressed her appreciation Monday for the international support for her country’s “long way back towards democracy”, and called for Zelaya’s return to power.