Forced Labor Still Common In Burma, Despite Junta's Vow

by Marwaan Macan-Markar

(IPS) BANGKOK -- The Burmese military regime's continued pervasive use of forced labor despite its promise to the International labor Organization (ILO) to eradicate it has prompted calls for firm action against Rangoon.

The Geneva-based UN agency, in a report released this month, said Rangoon has been slow to deliver on a pledge to stop using an estimated 800,000 Burmese as conscripted labor with little or no pay.

"Forced labor remains a very serious problem in Burma," Richard Horsey, the ILO's liaison officer in Burma, affirmed during an interview. "It is a practice that continues across the country particularly on local infrastructure projects."

The army has also continued to "routinely use forced labor for a variety of tasks, including forcing them to be porters, particularly in the border areas," he told IPS.

In an unprecedented move, in June 1999, the ILO overwhelmingly approved a resolution that denounced the Burmese government for inflicting "a contemporary form of slavery."

The bar prevented Burma from receiving ILO aid or attending meetings of the 174 nation body.

Bowing to international pressure, the Rangoon regime and the labor body agreed last May on a joint plan of action to eliminate forced labor.

"The program was viewed as a pivotal end to the labor violations," said the ILO report.

That initiative, which was to have commenced last July, was aborted following the attack on Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) on May 30.

Gangs of gunmen linked to the junta have been implicated in this assault that took place while Suu Kyi and her party members were out campaigning.

The democracy leader and other NLD members are still under house arrest following that assault.

But Debbie Stothart of the regional rights lobby Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTASEAN) argued that Burma knew only the language of international pressure, failing which the human rights abuses would keep continuing.

"There is something positive in having the ILO closely monitor forced labor in Burma," she told IPS. "For one, the ILO can see what the reality is to work in Burma."

"And it will also realize that the regime will only concede to change when under pressure and that it backs off when a noise is made," added Stothart.

"Otherwise, the military government does not bother. Even if it pledges to change it will not implement it thoroughly," she warned.

But labor rights violations that prevail in the country, said the ILO's Horsey, are less than the 1990s.

"There have been improvements in the forced labor situation. In particular, forced labor is no longer routinely used on national infrastructure projects," he said.

According to human rights organizations monitoring Burma, there are over 50 known camps across the country where prisoners, including women and young girls, are subject to forced labor.

The forced labor in these camps is for agriculture projects and local infrastructure projects.

Yet the ILO appears hardly impressed with some of the efforts that Rangoon has implemented, given the scale of abuses the Burmese have been subjected to by the junta.

The Burmese regime, according to the report, has failed to implement a countrywide program to inform communities that forced labor was forbidden and to create a mechanism to prosecute wrongdoers.

"It is a great pity that the conditions have not been met for the credible implementation of the 2003 Plan of Action, because I believe this plan could start to have an impact on forced labor used on the ground," said Horsey.

As disturbing for the UN agency was another development that undermined Rangoon's commitment to eradicate forced labor -- three Burmese men were convicted last November for "high treason" and sentenced to death by the junta for having contacts with the ILO.

The "crime" committed by one of the men was possessing Horsey's business card, while the other was faulted for having an ILO document.

These men told human rights monitors that they were beaten by military intelligence officials and deprived of food and sleep for several days while being held at Rangoon's notorious Insein prison.

"The discovery of a court judgement against certain persons in relation to contacts or exchange of information with the ILO had undermined the credibility and prospects for future cooperation," the ILO report states.

The UN labor right's agency's presence in Burma has served as a useful gauge to assess how far the junta would bow to pressure from a UN agency to address its long list of human rights violations -- in this case labor rights violations.

In 1999, just after the passing of the ILO resolution, Burma's foreign ministry said in a statement that the country had already brought local laws in line with the ILO's Forced labor Convention and Convention on the Freedom of Association.

"Deliberately turning a blind eye to these positive developments, a number of Western nations...pushed through the resolution accusing Myanmar of widespread use of forced labor," it added.

"Myanmar finds it impossible to accept such deplorable and unscrupulous action. Myanmar has therefore dissociated herself from this unfair and biased resolution."

The military government renamed the country Myanmar in 1989, following a harsh crackdown on a pro-democracy demonstration in 1988, where some 3,000 civilians were reported killed.

But Horsey believes the Burmese regime will ultimately bow to international pressure.

"The government knows that it is under constant scrutiny," he said. "The ILO's presence serves to remind the authorities that the international community is watching the situation closely and expects them to live up to their obligations."