COSATU+condemns+Myanmar+regime,+COSATU+Media+Release

COSATU Media Release, Thu 2007/01/25 04:11 PM
=__COSATU condemns Myanmar regime__=

The Congress of South African Trade Unions reaffirms its bitter opposition to the brutal military dictatorship in Myanmar (formerly Burma), which came to power through a military coup, and which has prevented the democratically elected President, Aung San Suu Kyi, from taking office and kept her under house arrest for many years. COSATU is particularly outraged at the regime’s well-documented use of forced labour.

COSATU has noted that the recent ANC Lekgotla endorsed the position taken by the South African government to vote against the UN Security Council resolution on Myanmar, on the grounds that the matter falls outside the mandate of the Security Council and properly belongs within the ambit of the UN Human Rights Council.

We welcome the fact that the Lekgotla reiterated “the ANC's deep concern at the situation in Myanmar, including widespread repression and the continued house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi”, but disagrees with its attempt to justify the SA government position.

Trade unions are banned in Burma, democratic opposition is prohibited, human rights campaigners are jailed. With the violation of human and worker rights on a scale so vast, it is not helpful for the government to hide behind a procedural point of Security Council vs. Human Rights Council.

The government should have made a clear and unambiguous condemnation of the Myanmar regime and supported the call for credible, internationally coordinated sanctions being imposed, as civil rights groups in many parts of the world have been demanding. The international community has a special responsibility to apply pressure in the way it did against apartheid South Africa.

The former International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) found vast evidence of forced labour in 17 different industries. Amnesty International (AI) reported in 2005 that the junta is subjecting tens of thousands of ethnic minority civilians to forced labour, beatings, land confiscation and destruction of their homes, which have contributed to almost one in six people in Myanmar suffering from inadequate nutrition and a third of children suffering chronic malnourishment, according to UN data.

These are a flagrant contravention of human rights as well as international and domestic law. The report's main findings included:


 * Widespread use of men, women and children as forced labour for portering, construction work and farming in contravention of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention (No 29) to which the Myanmar Government acceded in 1955;
 * Mass forced evictions, land confiscations and house destruction without compensation;
 * Beating and killing of civilians forced to carry rice or other supplies for the military, if they are unable to keep up with the work rate;
 * Regular harassment, abuse and arbitrary detention of civilians by the military;
 * Stealing by the military of villagers' crops, livestock, household possessions, and money, leaving thousands without adequate shelter and food;
 * Government restrictions on the ability of UN and other agencies to assist the population by denying access to rural areas and particularly the ethnic minority border regions.

The ICFTU report said that 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.

Military officers issue written forced labour orders everyday and 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 you or your family.

The confederation said it wanted to see "genuine and credible evidence of progress on the forced labour issue" before even considering a shift on the issue of ILO sanctions. The ILO has called on Burma's authorities to end the practice of forced labour since the early 1960s. In 1997 the ruling SPDC refused to co-operate with a special ILO Commission of Inquiry into violations by Burma of the ILO Forced Labour Convention. In 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.

COSATU will work closely with the International Trade Union Confederation to end the Myanmar regime’s use of forced labour and its brutal suppression of human rights, and will campaign in solidarity with the people of the country in their struggle to bring about genuine democratic transformation.


 * Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)**
 * Congress of South African Trade Unions**
 * 1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets**
 * Braamfontein, 2017**


 * P.O.Box 1019**
 * Johannesburg, 2000**
 * SOUTH AFRICA**


 * Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24**
 * Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667**
 * Cell: 0828217456**
 * E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za**

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