Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that the representative of Singapore had raised a crucial question.

Ethnologue lists 24 languages currently spoken in Bhutan, all of them in the Tibeto Burman family, except Nepali, an Indo Aryan language.

The region of Pagan received waves of Burman settlements in the mid to late 9th century, and perhaps well into the 10th century.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that the representative of the Russian Federation had raised an important issue that called for further deliberation.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said he expected that any budgetary request in respect of the convening of a diplomatic conference would encounter strong resistance.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that the Commission was fully competent to accept or reject proposals regarding a legal text that it was drafting.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that the travaux préparatoires of the Vienna Convention showed that the Convention did not apply to private international law.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) proposed deferring the discussion of draft article 19 bis until the Commission had concluded its discussion of draft article 22.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that his delegation did not interpret article 18 as being limited in the way described by the Canadian delegation.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that his delegation supported draft article 17 and had no objection to maintaining the amendment mentioned in footnote 8.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that the ad hoc drafting group had agreed on the following compromise wording for paragraph 4 of draft paragraph 16 bis

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that his understanding was that it would be left to individual REIOs to interpret place of business when making a declaration.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that he would be able to support Japan's proposal only if the clarification did not contradict the conclusions of the Working Group.

Mr. Burman (United States of America), Mr. Adensamer (Austria) and Ms. Lahelma (Observer for Finland) expressed support for the deletion of the word mandatory in the text proposed by the ad hoc drafting group.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that the words any State should be replaced by either any Contracting State or any State Party or possibly both, depending on how those terms were differentiated.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that, in his view, a State could properly make such a declaration under draft paragraph 2, although his delegation hoped that not many States would feel compelled to do so.

In particular, the addition of the word implicitly in draft article 3 would create legal uncertainty Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that there seemed to be a consensus in favour of keeping the draft article unchanged.

In the regions of the country with predominantly non Burman populations and where insurgencies have been taking place, many of the alleged killings are summary executions of civilians who are accused of either being insurgents or collaborating with insurgents.

The success and longevity of Pagan's dominance over the Irrawaddy valley enabled the ascent of Burmese language and culture, and the spread of Burman ethnicity in Upper Burma and laid the foundation for their continued spread elsewhere in later centuries.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that it had emerged during the deliberations of the Working Group that some countries were already allowing some procedures pertaining to family contracts and the law of succession to be conducted by means of electronic communications.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) reiterated the Working Group's conclusion after lengthy debate that several specific exclusions should be deleted from draft article 2 on the grounds that States wishing to exclude them would be free to do so under draft article 18.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that the commentary should reflect what he understood to be the conclusion of the Working Group, namely that family and succession matters could be covered by the Convention unless a declaration was made to exclude them under draft article 18.

Mr. Schöfisch (Germany), supported by Mr. Burman (United States), proposed that, in the interests of consistency with the wording of draft article 1, the words contract or agreement should be replaced with the word contract wherever they appeared in paragraphs 1 to 4 of draft article 20.

In the regions of the country with predominantly non Burman populations and where insurgencies have been taking place, the inhabitants of small villages are still said to be forced to relocate to larger villages or to temporary relocation camps for purposes of enabling government forces better to control the populations.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that he wished to amend the recommendation of three years contained in the written comments by the United States (A CN.9 578 Add.13) to two years, which would allow time for the special event he had suggested and leave some additional time thereafter.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) said that his delegation was strongly opposed to the wording of the proposed new paragraph, since it was wholly inappropriate for a United Nations body to be asked, in drafting a treaty, to set out mandatory terms governing its application to member States of another organization.

Mr. Burman (United States of America) noted that the language of the draft article was very similar to that of a clause in the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (Cape Town Convention) adopted at a conference of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) that had been attended by many of the delegations discussing the draft convention.