20 September 2001 Edition
Forced labour in Burma
An International Labour Organisation (ILO) delegation is travelling to Burma to assess the use of forced labour by the country's military government. The visit has taken months of negotiations between the ILO's Director-General, Juan Somavia, and the country's military dictator.
Burma's dictatorial regime was strongly criticised in the ILO's 2000 Report for its continued use of forced labour, and members of the organisation were urged to consider an economic boycott.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), has continuously denounced how in Burma, ``on any given day, several hundred thousand men, women, children and elderly people are forced to work against their will by the country's military rulers.
``Forced labour can include building army camps, roads, bridges, railroads, etc. Refusal to work may lead to being detained, tortured, raped, or killed.''
ICFTU and human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have reported on how army units force peasants to abandon their villages to work on the government's building projects. There are only two ways to escape forced labour: paying for a replacement, or, when money has run out, fleeing before the army comes to burn your village and kill them or their families.
In 1997, the Burmese government refused to co-operate with a special ILO Commission of Inquiry into violations by Burma of the ILO Forced Labour Convention. In early 1998, it refused to allow the Commission into the country. In its report, the Commission of Inquiry said forced labour in Burma was a crime against humanity, likely to continue as long as the military stayed in power.
In June 2000, the annual ILO Conference adopted a resolution calling on its constituents (governments, employers, and trade unions) to review relations with Burma and cease any relations that might aid its military junta to abet forced labour. The resolution also called on all UN and other multilateral agencies to do the same. It came into effect on 30 November after the ILO Governing Body decided it was not satisfied that Burma had done enough to implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry.
Forced labour is only one aspect of the Burmese government's dire human rights record. The country's ruling State Peace and Development Council's ongoing actions were described in Human Rights Watch 2001 Report as ``to pursue a strategy of marginalising the democratic opposition through detention, intimidation, and restrictions on basic civil liberties''.
The SPDC continues to deny its citizens freedom of expression, association, assembly, and movement. It intimidated members of the democratic opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) into resigning from the party and encouraged crowds to denounce NLD members elected to parliament in the May 1990 election.
The NLD and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was prevented from taking its seats in parliament and forming a majority government, despite winning the general election.
Umis Sahingoz, a 32-year old former prisoner and member of the banned Marxist group Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, became the 34th Turkish hunger striker to die on Friday 14 September. One of the first batch of hunger strikers, Umus succumbed on the 330th day of her fast.
Sahingoz, who had served time at an Istanbul prison for breaching Turkey's anti-terrorism laws but was released in July, died in a house in an Istanbul suburb where about a dozen other left-wing militants are also fasting, the prisoner support group Ozgur Tayad said.
Her death occurred before a visit by an Irish delegation, which arrived on Sunday 16 September. Alex Maskey and other four delegates were briefly detained on their arrival in Turkey, when they were nearing the houses where released prisoners and relatives of political prisoners are carrying their death fast.
Speaking for Sinn Féin's international department, Joan O'Connor pointed out that the detention of the Irish delegation highlights ``the attempts to silence news of the hunger strikes emanating from Turkey''.
O'Connor explained that the delegation was on a fact-finding mission.
Turkish political prisoners and their supporters began fasting in October last year to protest the prisoners' transfers from large, dormitory-style wards to prisons with one- or three-person cells. Prisoners say the new prison system leaves them isolated and vulnerable to beatings from guards.
Clashes broke out in December and 30 inmates and two soldiers died when more than 20,000 soldiers and police stormed the prisons to transfer the political prisoners to the new F-type prisons.
Burma's dictatorial regime was strongly criticised in the ILO's 2000 Report for its continued use of forced labour, and members of the organisation were urged to consider an economic boycott.
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), has continuously denounced how in Burma, ``on any given day, several hundred thousand men, women, children and elderly people are forced to work against their will by the country's military rulers.
``Forced labour can include building army camps, roads, bridges, railroads, etc. Refusal to work may lead to being detained, tortured, raped, or killed.''
ICFTU and human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have reported on how army units force peasants to abandon their villages to work on the government's building projects. There are only two ways to escape forced labour: paying for a replacement, or, when money has run out, fleeing before the army comes to burn your village and kill them or their families.
In 1997, the Burmese government refused to co-operate with a special ILO Commission of Inquiry into violations by Burma of the ILO Forced Labour Convention. In early 1998, it refused to allow the Commission into the country. In its report, the Commission of Inquiry said forced labour in Burma was a crime against humanity, likely to continue as long as the military stayed in power.
In June 2000, the annual ILO Conference adopted a resolution calling on its constituents (governments, employers, and trade unions) to review relations with Burma and cease any relations that might aid its military junta to abet forced labour. The resolution also called on all UN and other multilateral agencies to do the same. It came into effect on 30 November after the ILO Governing Body decided it was not satisfied that Burma had done enough to implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry.
Forced labour is only one aspect of the Burmese government's dire human rights record. The country's ruling State Peace and Development Council's ongoing actions were described in Human Rights Watch 2001 Report as ``to pursue a strategy of marginalising the democratic opposition through detention, intimidation, and restrictions on basic civil liberties''.
The SPDC continues to deny its citizens freedom of expression, association, assembly, and movement. It intimidated members of the democratic opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) into resigning from the party and encouraged crowds to denounce NLD members elected to parliament in the May 1990 election.
The NLD and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was prevented from taking its seats in parliament and forming a majority government, despite winning the general election.
34th Turkish hunger striker dies
Umis Sahingoz, a 32-year old former prisoner and member of the banned Marxist group Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, became the 34th Turkish hunger striker to die on Friday 14 September. One of the first batch of hunger strikers, Umus succumbed on the 330th day of her fast.
Sahingoz, who had served time at an Istanbul prison for breaching Turkey's anti-terrorism laws but was released in July, died in a house in an Istanbul suburb where about a dozen other left-wing militants are also fasting, the prisoner support group Ozgur Tayad said.
Her death occurred before a visit by an Irish delegation, which arrived on Sunday 16 September. Alex Maskey and other four delegates were briefly detained on their arrival in Turkey, when they were nearing the houses where released prisoners and relatives of political prisoners are carrying their death fast.
Speaking for Sinn Féin's international department, Joan O'Connor pointed out that the detention of the Irish delegation highlights ``the attempts to silence news of the hunger strikes emanating from Turkey''.
O'Connor explained that the delegation was on a fact-finding mission.
Turkish political prisoners and their supporters began fasting in October last year to protest the prisoners' transfers from large, dormitory-style wards to prisons with one- or three-person cells. Prisoners say the new prison system leaves them isolated and vulnerable to beatings from guards.
Clashes broke out in December and 30 inmates and two soldiers died when more than 20,000 soldiers and police stormed the prisons to transfer the political prisoners to the new F-type prisons.