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Burma - Forced Labour
Forced labour is continuing on a widespread scale in Burma and is accompanied by massive violations of other human rights. Men and women of all ages are forced to work against their will, including children and elderly people. Women are particularly at risk. Incidents of gang rape by soldiers are frequent, and many victims have been murdered afterwards.
The use of forced labour in Burma is a strategy of control used by the military dictatorship to contain rebel activity in insurgent areas and to aid its "development" agenda.
In larger cities like Mandalay and Rangoon, the Burmese military attempts to spruce up Burma's image for foreign tourists and potential investors. People are forced to clean pagodas and national monuments. In rural and ethnic areas people are forced to grow food, build infrastructure and carry equipment for the military. Many die in the process.
The labour that the SPDC calls "voluntary" is degrading, back-breaking and inhuman.
The Facts
- Burmese military leaders admit to the widespread use of "voluntary labour" in Burma and hold that such labour is donated with the full consent of civilians for the good of the nation. They argue that forced labour is a traditional Burmese practice by re-interpreting pre-colonial Burmese practice that conditionally sanctioned the use of civilian labour in constructing temples or palaces.
- In 1955 Burma ratified ILO Convention 29 in which it agreed to "... suppress the use of forced labour or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period". The Convention defined forced labour as " ... all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself (or herself) voluntarily".
- Overwhelming evidence shows that the SPDC enforces a strict system of forced labour throughout Burma. Tens of thousands of Burmese citizens, under threat of arrest and/or bodily harm, are forced to work without compensation as porters of supplies in war zones, on massive infrastructure projects such as road and railway construction, and on small-scale tourism projects.
- The junta recruits labourers by methods of intimidation, coercion and kidnapping. If a civilian refuses to work on military labour project they must pay high fines, or face beatings, rape or death. Even if a villager agrees to cooperate with the army, beatings, rape and murder are still common.
- Orders are issued in writing to village headmen to gather workers from local communities by a certain date, often during times of harvest, which means that normal methods of wage earning are lost. Villagers who become sick from disease, malnutrition or exhaustion are offerred no medical assistance. Orders to clear populated areas for construction are common.
- Villagers who are used as porters, including young children and pregnant women, are forced to carry packs for the army that amount to more than half the villagers weight.
- Often the Tatmadaw (Burmese army) sends children ahead of their troops to act as human mine-sweepers to deter counter-attacks from opposition groups.
- One of the main reasons for the mass exodus of Burmese nationals into neighbouring countries as refugees or as migrant workers is the fear of being used as forced labourers and the inability to pay junta-imposed fines for non-compliance in labour projects.
- Trade unions, and the right to organise, are illegal, as are freedom of protest and freedom of expression.
Burma: the nightmare continues
New report presents evidence that forced labour is actually increasing.
October 2002
Contact Details
Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA
Ph: (02) 9264 9343
Fax: (02) 9261 1118
office@apheda.org.au
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