Increase in the number of victims of forced labour lodging complaints about attacks

Never before have so many members of the minorities complained of forced labour as in the past five months. This was reported by the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) on Thursday in Göttingen. Between May and November 2009 inspectors of the International Labour Organisation ILO have reported 71 cases of forced labour in Burma , i.e. 50% more than in the same period last year. "A positive aspect is the fact that people are now finding the courage to report forced labour”, said the STP Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. But the fear of reprisals is still so great that no more than one third of the attacks committed are actually being reported. "The figures also show clearly that Burma is far from abolishing forced labour – and this has been promised by the government since the ratification of the Convention against forced labour in the year 1955.”

The case of the human rights worker Zaw Htay shows how dangerous it is to lodge a complaint against forced labour in Burma . Zaw Htay was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in January 2009 because he assisted farmers in formulating complaints. The lawyer Pho Phyu, who defended the human rights worker and the farmers was in March 2009 sentenced to four years imprisonment.

Members of minorities have been forcibly recruited above all by the army for general labouring tasks, for road-building and the construction of pipelines and dams. Forced labour is also often used in rice-fields and oil-plantations. "We are afraid that forced labour will also be used in the construction of the new natural gas and oil pipelines and in the 60 dams which are planned for the minority areas”, said Delius.

In Shan state alone 150 army battalions are stationed, which regularly misuse the Shan in their work-force. About a quarter of the Shan families have been compulsorily resettled this year. Members of the Chin clan have been forced by soldiers to build military camps and to fence them in. People from the Rohingya tribe had to help in the construction of a fence on the border with the neighbouring country of Bangladesh to prevent the persecuted minority escaping from Burma .

The STP Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, can also answer questions at asien@gfbv.de