UNITED NATIONS -- Honduras' ousted president addressed the United Nations General Assembly by cellular telephone from the Brazilian embassy in his country's capital, where he is holed up.
Manuel Zelaya said Monday that a June military coup that toppled him has subjected Honduras to a dictatorship.
He called on world leaders to guarantee his safety and those of Hondurans who have taken to the streets to demand his return to power.
Zelaya spoke via a phone brought to the podium by his foreign minister, Patricia Rodas. His brief words drew sustained applause from assembled diplomats, some of whom stood.
Rodas also spoke for half an hour claiming the coup-installed government has clamped down on civil liberties so much that "Honduras is becoming an enormous prison."
Meanwhile a senior U.N. official said Monday said an attack by police and soldiers on the Brazilian embassy in Honduras, where that country's deposed president is holed up, "would be a disaster."
Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe said the situation in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, "took a seriously bad turn with the threats on the Brazilian embassy," where Zelaya has sought shelter since sneaking back into his homeland last week.
"This of course is a very serious problem for all of us," Pascoe said. "It would be a disaster if any action were taken to violate international law on the inviolability of the embassies."
In Honduras Monday, the head of the coup-installed government, Roberto Micheletti, repeated a pledge not to attack the Brazilian Embassy and sent "a big hug" to Brazil's president, a day after giving him a 10-day ultimatum to expel Zelaya or move him to Brazil.
Last week, the U.N. Security Council held a briefing and closed-door consultations after Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim raised concerns Honduran authorities could move against the embassy to capture Zelaya.
In a statement, the council "condemned acts of intimidation" against the embassy, and said that "respect and protection of the inviolability of diplomatic premises is a universally accepted principle of international relations."
The government that seized power in the military coup, sending Zelaya into forced exile on June 28, has suspended civil liberties, silenced opposition broadcasters, and sent police and soldiers into the streets to face off with protesters.
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