Daily News-November 10 - 2001- Saturday

  • Four More Political Prisoners Released in Burma
  • Labour team critical of regime but sees glimmer of hope
  • ILO rejects Burmese labour claims
  • Thai anti-drug officials visit ethnic Wa base in Myanmar
  • Thai government `failing on illegal immigration'

    • Four More Political Prisoners Released in Burma

    RANGOON, November 9 (Xinhuanet) -- Four more political prisoners,who are all members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), were freed by the Burma government on Friday afternoon, said an official Information Sheet.

    The document said the four NLD members were "released from various correctional facilities," identifying their names as U Than Htay, U Khin Maung Oo, U Kyaw Soe and U Tin Win.

    The release has brought the total number of the NLD's political prisoners freed in the country to 186 since January of this year,it added.
    Labour team critical of regime but sees glimmer of hope

    source : SCMP
    WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok

    The widespread use of forced labour under Myanmar's military regime appears to have eased slightly, but there is still "disturbing evidence" of rampant and often brutal requisitioning of unpaid labour, according to a high-powered International Labour Organisation team.

    In a tentative report just published, the distinguished four-man team appointed by the secretary-general of the ILO to investigate Myanmar's claims to have abolished the practice said its initial scepticism over these claims were "amply justified".

    The investigators found particularly worrying apparently rampant use of forced labour in hinterland areas where members of ethnic minorities were frequently forced into unpaid work that "all too often was accompanied by acts of cruelty".

    The investigatory report, scheduled to be considered by the ILO's governing body in Geneva later this month, is considered a critical step in the regime's attempts to convince the world that it is genuinely willing to embrace widespread concern over human rights abuses, and by extension to embrace political change.

    If the team that spent three weeks in Myanmar last month was critical in its observations, it also admitted that the regime - or at least many of its senior members - appeared ready to grasp an "historic opportunity" for the country to turn its back on an ugly, if ancient, practice and enter the modern world.

    A uniquely damning ILO commission described in 1998 conditions akin to that of a slave society in many parts of Myanmar, with a "climate of fear" that permitted officials to press gang men, women and children on, in many places, a whim. That report and its 6,000 pages of documentary evidence of forced labour led to the unprecedented suspension of Myanmar from the ILO.

    Some critics of the regime suspect the ILO's call last year for countries to consider sanctions against Myanmar was one of the triggers that led to surprise closed-door talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after a long period of repressive measures against her National League for Democracy party. The team conceded that the fact it was allowed to take its own interpreters and travel nearly everywhere it wanted was a positive mark for the regime.It met not only regime officials but also members of the opposition, including Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, leaders of ethnic groups and "perhaps all interested parties".

    The four are Sir Ninian Stephen, the former governor-general of Australia; Nieves Roldan-Confessor, former Philippines secretary of labour; Kulatilaka Ranasinghe, a retired chief justice of Sri Lanka; and Jerzy Makarczyk, a judge in the European Court of Human Rights.They quickly discovered that the regime's claims to have "banned" forced labour often had little bearing on the local situation, especially where there was a heavy military presence. In some areas, notices banning the practice - and local meetings to explain the new rules - appeared to have appeared just before the team arrived.

    The principle laws on forced labour had not been replaced, merely overridden by "orders" that much of the population, including officials, appeared not to understand. The team also said it was clear ordinary people were frightened to report abuses, and not a single criminal case of forced labour had occurred.
    ILO rejects Burmese labour claims

    Financial Times; Nov 9, 2001
    By WILLIAM BARNES

    A high-powered investigatory team from the International Labour Organisation that had unprecedented access inside Burma has dismissed the military government's claims to have abolished forced labour.

    The investigators' report holds out hope that Burma's ruling generals may yet grasp a "historic opportunity" to turn their back on what the ILO describes as an ancient, if ugly, practice. The ILO's ruling body will consider later this month what action to take.

    The generals' ability to soften the agency's unprecedented censures - previous reports have come close to calling Burma a slave state - has been widely seen as a measure of their willingness to embrace criticism and, by extension, political change. Some critics suspect the government opened talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi last year to head off the threat of ILO-inspired sanctions.

    The investigators' initial scepticism over the government's claims to have scrapped forced labour with directives issued in 1999 and in 2000 was "amply justified", the report said. Forced labour remained widespread, with "disturbing evidence" that local army units - the worst offenders - ignored warnings without compunction or trepidation.

    The research in Burma suggested, nevertheless, there had been a "very moderately positive evolution" of forced labour pressures on the population.

    Interviews on the Thai border near where many minorities live threw up a "more disturbing" picture of its blatant use, "all to often it was accompanied by acts of cruelty".

    The report stepped around any call for wholesale political change but said that the simple existence of a bloated 350,000-strong military that meddled in all areas of civil life fuelled abuses. It noted also how the military acted as if control and unity were a greater priority than human rights, even if that risked "irreversible damage to the goodwill between the majority and the other ethnic communities".

    There is enough material in this latest report to fuel critics' calls for extra sanctions but the investigators argue that many in the leadership "have fully grasped the historical dimension of the challenge and the need to respond to it". The report proposed as an initial step the deployment of an permanent ILO office in Burma.
    Thai anti-drug officials visit ethnic Wa base in Myanmar

    YANGON, Myanmar (AP) _ Thai anti-drug officials visited a town in eastern Myanmar reputed to be a major center for production of methamphetamines, and held talks with ethnic Wa leaders there, Myanmar's official press reported Friday.

    The seven-member Thai delegation led by Kitti Limchaikit, secretary general of Thai Drug Abuse Control Organization, discussed drug eradication and alternative development projects with Wa leader Pauk Yu Ri at Mong Yawn, in the southern Wa region, the New Light of Myanmar reported.

    Thailand has in the past identified Mong Yawn as the source of illegal stimulant drugs that have flooded the country in recent years, straining bilateral relations with the military government of Myanmar, also known as Burma. Mong Yawn is under the administration of the United Wa State Army, a former ethnic rebel group, which reached a peace agreement with the government in 1989. It is 690 kilometers (430 miles) northeast of Yangon and 24 kilometers (15 miles) from the Thai border.

    The United States has identified the UWSC as the leading drug army in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle, also a major world source of opium, the raw material of heroin. The Myanmar regime says the Wa are trying to phase out drug production. Hilltribe farmers in the region have long cultivated opium as a cash crop.

    The New Light reported that the Thai drug delegation visited an area near Mong Yawn with 2,430 hectares (6,000 acres) of substitute crop plantations and poultry farms and had "cordial" discussions with Wa leaders. The Thais arrived on Monday and met with Myanmar officials to discuss assisting drug elimination and alternative development in Mong Yawn.

    The visit is the latest sign of improving Myanmar-Thai relations, which hit a low point in February after Thai and Myanmar soldiers clashed at their land border. But relations have warmed considerably since a June visit to Myanmar by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra when a bilateral drug suppression agreement was signed.

    In a separate development,"Nyanmar official media reported Friday that an anti-drug task force of police and army raided an opium refinery in Kutkai township near Chinese border Oct. 20 and seized nearly 5,145 liters (1,354 gallons) of drug-making chemicals. Kutkai is located in the northern reaches of Shan State, 760 kilometers (475 miles) northeast of Yangon. The report said officers also seized three Honda generators and other paraphernalia from 17 sheds. It did not mention any arrests or drugs seized.
    Thai government `failing on illegal immigration'

    Senators have accused the government of failing to contain the growing number of illegal immigrants in Thailand.Chiang Mai senator Sawat Amornvivat said as many as two million illegal immigrants were believed to have entered Thailand from neighbouring countries, especially Burma.

    Only about 500,000 had registered for employment in certain types of jobs allowed by the government. Pol Gen Sawat claimed the remainder were still in the country and were working illegally in Bangkok and other areas because authorities had failed to arrest and deport them.The senator said the illegal immigrants posed a serious threat to public safety and national security.

    Senator Sawai Prammanee, of Nakhon Ratchasima, said the government had failed to implement effective measures to contain the rising number of illegal immigrants from Laos, Cambodia and Burma.``Extensions of permits for these alien workers seemed to have been given with no end in sight and the number of these immigrants is rising steadily,'' Mr Sawai said.``Up to 109,000 immigrants, about 60,000 of them women, have been located in Bangkok alone.''

    Lumpong Pilasombat, a Nakhon Ratchasima senator, claimed Burmese immigrants were forced to pay 7,000 baht each in kickbacks to officials at border checkpoints in Chiang Rai to gain entry into Thailand. He said there were reports that the number of children born to foreign labourers had reached 50,000 in Bangkok alone.

    Labour Minister Dej Boonlong defended the government, saying steps had been taken to deport illegal immigrants, especially those from Burma.However, the country still needed foreign labour to handle jobs which Thai people did not want to do.

    Mr Dej said the extension of permits for alien workers had been suspended since August.Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said Rangoon had agreed to provide lodging for Burmese immigrants in border areas in Burma opposite Mae Sot in Tak province, Mae Sai in Chiang Rai, and Ranong.