Burma - the Nightmare Continues

When Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in May this year, the international community and the people of Burma expected the process of democratic reform to move forward.

Instead, the dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta has stalled and reports of horrific human rights abuses and an unfolding humanitarian crisis continue to emerge from Burma.

Forced labour: a crime against humanity
The widespread and systematic use of forced labour in Burma has drawn particular condemnation from unions globally, and the issue has been the subject of on ongoing campaign to pressure trade and investment out of the country.

Reports from the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) indicate that forced labour in Burma is actually on the increase. These allegations are supported by over 350 pages of evidence covering the period October 2001 - September 2002 and presented to the ILO this month.

In this report, the ICFTU presents evidence of hundreds of incidents of forced labour, involving thousands of victims. Most of the forced labour is for the direct benefit of the army, while part of it concerns forced labour on or in connection with industrial projects operated by foreign companies. The report indicates that forced labour is regularly, if not always, accompanied by other gross violations of human rights, including child labour, murder, assassination, torture, rape, beatings, looting or confiscation of property, denial of food, medical treatment, rest and shelter and many other violations.

Trade unionists targeted
The military is also stepping up operations against underground trade union structures. This is the first time the ICFTU has released details of underground trade union activities in Burma since it started investigating forced labour in the country over a decade ago.

These details include the military junta's attack on Federation of Trade Unions - Burma (FTUB) facilities, as well as looting food stocks of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and burning down elementary schools, a hospital, and a workshop for disabled workers.

A particularly damming report details how army elements murdered an official of the FTUB (Federation of Trade Unions - Burma) and KEWU (Kawthoolei Education Workers Union), who had been forcibly recruited for the army as a porter. When the army column came under attack from elements of the ethnic independence movement shortly before nightfall on 4th August 2002, Saw Mya Than was killed in cold blood as an act of retaliation by the very soldiers he was forced to work for.

It is clear that there is a direct link between Than's trade union role and his murder. Than had been trained as a human and trade union rights' specialist by the FTUB and FTUK in 2001. He became well known in his area for his involvement with human rights and was also widely known to be an official of the Kawthoolei Education Workers Union (KEWU). Although his murder took place in the specific context of forced labour, the ICFTU also considers that there is a direct link between his trade union role and his murder by the army.

Multinationals profit from forced labour
The ICFTU also charges that the French oil company, TOTALFINA-ELF, knowingly allows the use forced labour for road building and other work connected to its Yadana pipeline operation. By allowing the army to resort to forced labour in order to fulfil the services required of it by arrangement or by contract, TOTALFINA-ELF directly and knowingly profits from forced labour imposed by the Burmese army on civilians.

All members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) were urged to review their relations with Burma and take appropriate measures to ensure that Burma cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labour. TOTALFINA-ELF has clearly failed in these undertakings.

The ICFTU will shortly be releasing new evidence of multinational investment in Burma, as union researchers uncover new examples of corporations profiting from one of the world's most repressive regimes.

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.
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Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 16:05:28 EST
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