Myanmar claims action taken against forced labour

Mar 31, 2007, 5:03 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar's ruling junta has cracked down on at least two cases of forced labour since agreeing to establish a complaint mechanism against the widespread practice with the International Labour Organization (ILO) last month, media reports said Saturday.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, two government officials from Aunglan township were sentenced to six months imprisonment on February 28 for forcing villagers to make road repairs on the Aunglan-Thanbula Road, reported The New Light of Myanmar - a government mouthpiece.

In another case, Forest Department personnel who forced villagers from Sangalay town to cut down trees and build a road have been dismissed from the jobs, claimed the daily.

The two cases follow on the heels of Myanmar's agreement on February 26 to set up a mechanism with ILO that will enable victims of forced labour to seek redress.

The ILO had been pressuring Myanmar for more than a year to set up a mechanism whereby complaints of forced labour can be made to their office in Yangon without fear of imprisonment and intimidation of the complainants by the authorities, as has happened in the past.

The ILO was to decide at its next session in Geneva whether to take the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) if Myanmar continued to refuse to agree to the mechanism.

Myanmar's military regime has drawn international condemnation for the widespread use of forced labour in its myriad of infrastructure building projects such as roads, dams and bridges over the past two decades.

ILO sources say that although the practice is now less widespread, the government has switched to using prison labourers of late. Child labour, with pitiful pay of less than 1 dollar a day, is also a common phenomenon.

The mechanism, which will implemented on a trial basis for 12 months, will be unique to Myanmar.

Under the agreement, Myanmar's regime guarantees that no retaliatory action will be taken against complainants and allows the ILO liaison officer to travel within the country to meet complainants about forced labour.

The mechanism, while unlikely to end forced labour in Myanmar, could undermine the sense of 'impunity' local authorities have enjoyed in the past in conscripting villagers for corvee labour or dangerous jobs in war zones for the government, ILO experts contend.

The mechanism was proposed by the ILO after several people who had registered complaints about forced labour in Myanmar were imprisoned by the government.

Myanmar has been ruled by the self-styled State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), a military junta, since 1988 when an army crackdown on a nationwide pro-democracy movement left more than 3,000 people dead.

The regime earned itself international condemnation for refusing to hand over power to the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, after it won the 1990 general election by a landslide.