An ILO a mission was sent to Burma this week, just prior to the International Labour Conference where member countries are expected to take the unprecedented action against the military junta of the Southeast Asian nation. The 3-member ILO mission will visit the capital Rangoon to discuss with the generals the implementation of the recommendations of a 1998 Commission of Inquiry into forced labour practices in the country renamed Myanmar by the military regime.
The ILO report details case-upon case of villagers conscripted without consent to build, maintain and service army barracks, infrastructure and other development projects. People of all ages, including the elderly, children and prisoners, are coerced at gunpoint to work long hours, without pay, and required to bring their own tools and food, the report states. "It is part of the culture, it is seen as acceptable", said Maung Maung, General Secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma (FTUB), "We're trying to change that."
There are also details the conscription of children into the army, some as young as 14, and the trafficking of girls and women into Thailand's sex industry. Others are sequestered by army battalions as military porters, carrying equipment and food for solders as they trample through the dense jungles in their on-going battles against insurgent groups.
The ICFTU introduced a complaint against the junta in 1994 with the assistance of the FTUB for their failure to comply with the 1930 ILO Convention on Forced Labour. The generals were asked to respond to ICFTU's accusations, but did so immediately prior the deadline for submission. It was obvious, suggests Maung Maung, that the regime was playing a cat-and-mouse game, trying to avoid criticism for their abuses.
The regime had already come under increasing international pressure for a catalogue of atrocities committed against their civilian population, including rape, torture, arbitrary arrests and killings, use of child labour, forced labour and denying the most basic of personal freedoms: assembly, speech and association.
ICFTU's case brought against the regime did not end forced labour practices, but in fact, according to accounts by democratic leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the situation became much worse. The ILO took the next step of convening a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the charges (according to article 26 of the ILO Constitution). The report made it very clear that forced and compulsory labour were both widespread and systematic.
In very strongly worded language, the Commission recommended that "the practice of forced and compulsory labour posed by the authorities, in particular the army" be ended immediately, that those who continue the practice of forced labour be prosecuted, and that laws in Burma be amended to reflect the changes. In response, the junta changed two acts that pertained to the use of "voluntary labour", however the change in laws only applied to the civilian use of forced labour, such as that requested by village headmen, ignoring the much more sinister and pervasive role of the army.
An order at the International Labour Conference passed last year which stated that the junta "should cease to benefit from any technical cooperation or assistance from the ILO, except for the purpose of direct assistance to implement immediately the recommendations of the Commission." The text of the ruling decried the situation as "nothing but a contemporary from of slavery".
Asian leaders, who have favoured diplomatic engagement with the junta, opposed the Order, stating that the junta needs more to time reform. In 1997, the junta was invited into ASEAN, and neighbouring countries, in particular Japan, Singapore and China, remain steady investors despite international pressure to stem the flow of support to the junta.
In the run up to this year's ILO Conference, Secretary General Juan Somavio announced that the Governing Body would take the forced labour complaint to the next and final step and invoke Article 33 of its Constitution against the Burmese junta for failing to clean up its act. It would be the furthest the ILO has ever taken a complaint with a member country in its 80-year history. Sets of measures were coming motion to end the abuses in Burma, among them a call for member countries to act unilaterally through economic sanctions and whatever other measure "to end the practice of forced and compulsory labour immediately".
It was in this context, two weeks before the ILO Conference next week that the junta agreed to an ILO technical mission. In doing so, the junta admits to be largely responsible for the findings of the 1998 report, which they have denied repeatedly.
Is the junta sincere in its desire to first accept then adopt the changes demanded by the world community? Moreover, how probable is that that the mission will achieve meaningful progress? Further, what should be Canada's response?
The junta's media, The New Light of Myanmar, dismissed the ILO as having "lost its dignity", since they were promoting the agenda of "neo-colonialists". "We pity the ILO", it said, bringing into question the junta's sincerity in accepting the mission. Second, the FTUB challenged whether the mission, in its three-day visit, would have a chance to visit remote sections of the country where much of the forced labour occurs. Third, the Burmese generals will be sure to use the mission as leverage in next weeks Conference to soften criticism and obstruct the passage of Article 33.
The report made it abundantly clear that the military regime is culpable and that the root of the problem is the junta itself. Ending the atrocities, according to Maung Maung, will not occur without political reform. Canada should therefore support the elected representatives who have never been allowed to sit because of the refusal of the junta in accepting the results of democratic elections which took place ten years ago this weekend, and not offer support or assistance to the junta which only serves to prolong their rule by providing them with resources and legitimacy.
Aaron James Canada Asia Pacific Resource Network www.caprn.bc.ca _________________________ Aaron James
Canada Asia Pacific Resource Network www.caprn.bc.ca 170 - 111 Victoria Drive Vancouver, British Columbia V5L 4C4 phone: 604 255-7346 (office) fax: 604 255-0971 phone: 604 602-1626 (home)