Forced labour claim infuriates Burma

Burma's military government is in conflict with the International Labour Organisation, threatening its staff, jailing alleged collaborators and threatening to withdraw from the grouping over reports of forced labour. By Connie Levett Herald Correspondent in Bangkok November 3, 2005

In May, the organisation's global report on forced labour singled out Burma as the worst offender, referring to the "extreme case of forced labour extracted by the military in Myanmar [Burma]".

Since June, the head of the organisation's Rangoon office, Richard Horsey, and his staff have received numerous death threats. One letter called the organisation a puppet of the CIA and warned Mr Horsey "if you interfere our internal affairs [sic] your head will be cut off and our people will crush you and poison you". In June, July and August, speakers at mass rallies throughout the country denounced the organisation and called on the Government to withdraw from it. On Monday, the junta jailed a Burmese lawyer, Aye Myint, for seven years on charges he passed "incorrect/false" information to the body. He had been helping farmers from Phaungdawthi village fight the seizure of their land by the military.

Burma is understood to have withdrawn from the International Labour Organisation already, although no formal announcement has been made. If it does so, Burma will still have two years before it can completely leave the organisation, during which time it will continue to be subject to the obligations of a member state.

"They say they are angry at the ILO but the ILO have told them if they leave, it will be interpreted as them not wanting to address the forced labour problem," Mr Horsey said. "Myanmar is not the only country with a forced labour problem but the reason it is treated so seriously is because it is imposed by the state. In Myanmar it is the army and the civil administration - the military is the worst offender."

The military uses villagers to carry its baggage and build army camps and roads, and it even commandeers farmland and makes the villagers grow food for the soldiers. Civil authorities will conscript labour for local projects, the labour organisation says.

International criticism of the regime's tactics has grown louder in the past week. There are moves, backed by the US, to refer Burma to the United Nations Security Council. The US State Department has spoken out in support of the organisation's work in the country.

"We commend the ILO for its efforts in Burma to help eradicate forced labour, and condemn the Burmese regime's continuing violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms," a spokesman said.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, criticised the regime's record on forced labour and human rights in the UN General Assembly's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee in New York last Thursday.

On Monday, the US President, George Bush, was pictured at the White House with a young Burmese democracy activist. The ILO has recommended member states review direct investment in Burma, particularly in state- or military-owned firms.

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