BurmaNet News, June 5-7, 2004

[Editor]

June 5-7, 2004, Issue # 2490

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Myanmar junta frees nine who were arrested last week for distributing
leaflets
AFP: Delegates to return to Myanmar convention for restricted talks
The Age: Burma's constitutional assembly officially no laughing matter

ON THE BORDER
Nation: Confessions of a Burma-maid smuggler
Nation: Police prey on Burmese: report

BUSINESS / MONEY
Xinhua: ASEAN-China Business Council Meeting opens in Myanmar
ABS-CBN: Burma’s continuing turmoil bars entry to Europe-Asean club

REGIONAL
Nation: PM: Secure Burma good for Thailand

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Human rights watch urges Myanmar to remove children from army
Straits Times via AP: Forced-labour report could trigger Myanmar sanctions



INSIDE BURMA
______________________________________

June 7, Associated Press
Myanmar junta frees nine who were arrested last week for distributing
leaflets - Aye Aye Win

Yangon: Myanmar's military junta on Monday freed nine members of
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party with a warning not to repeat
their offense: handing out leaflets in public.

The nine young men were brought in a car to a local administration office
in the capital Yangon, eight days after being detained for distributing
pamphlets about human rights, and returned to their families and officials
of their National League for Democracy party.

The incident took place on the first anniversary of Suu Kyi's arrest on
May 30, 2003 during a bloody clash between her supporters and a pro-junta
mob in northern Myanmar on condition of anonymity.

But he said he had no regrets.

"We think the people should know about human rights. I am happy," he said.

The youths were kept at Yangon's Insein prison, but refused to say how
they were treated in detention.

A military intelligence officer, Col. Nay Soe, told reporters that the
nine were arrested for "staging a stunt" by distributing leaflets in
public, and not specifically because they contained the United Nations
human rights declaration.

"The distribution of leaflets on the street amounts to instigation" of
unrest, he said.

Public protests are extremely rare in Myanmar and any agitation is put
down firmly and quickly by security forces.

The nine were handing out the leaflets at two crowded markets, an
intersection and a busy downtown street. Witnesses said they were wearing
white T-shirts with the backs emblazoned with the slogan: "Freedom from
fear."

The fate of a young woman who staged a solo protest in front of the city
hall last Sunday was not immediately known. She is not a member of the
NLD.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate, was in custody at an unknown
location for several months following her arrest last year and was later
brought home to be kept under house arrest.

Her continued detention has provoked widespread international criticism,
but the junta refuses to say when she would be freed despite promising to
the United Nations in April that her release was imminent.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 but the current junta
came to power in 1988 after putting down a pro-democracy movement. It held
elections in 1990 but has refused to step down even after the NLD won. The
government, however, claims it will install democracy one day.

_____________________________________

June 6, Agence France Presse
Delegates to return to Myanmar convention for restricted talks

Yangon: Hundreds of delegates were set to return Sunday to Myanmar's
national convention after their first permitted leave since the forum
began last month, amid complaints their debates on the country's future
had been restricted by the military junta.

A rumoured walkout to protest the forum has not materialised among the 700
delegates who had been escorted by bus into the capital Yangon from the
isolated venue for a weekend reprieve.

"I don't expect any walkouts at this point," Tun Aung Thein, a senior
delegate and specially invited guest to the proceedings, told AFP.

Some 1,076 delegates in all have been sequestered at the venue since the
forum was launched May 17 tasked with adopting a framework for a new
constitution.

Some delegates had acknowledged that there was talk of a walkout but that
none was taking place yet.

The country's main opposition group, the National League for Democracy
(NLD), led a boycott of the forum as its leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains
under house arrest and reforms to the session were not made by the
government.

Yangon was also hit with severe international criticism over the
convention, with the United States, the United Nations and human rights
groups condemning the process as a sham.

Tun Aung Thein said the next two weeks should see finalisation of key
proposals by the various groups in the convention thrashing out the
crucial "power-sharing" aspects of a new government that is the stated
goal of Yangon's self-proclaimed "roadmap to democracy".

"The proposals are expected to be ready later this month," he said.

The convention is the first step in the roadmap, for which no timeframe
has been given but which is billed as ending in "free and fair" elections.

Tun Aung Thein said that it appeared likely that a draft constitution
would be ready for ratification by next year.

Other delegates were more pessimistic about the forum which has seen
participants sequestered at a heavily guarded military base, saying there
has been no freedom to challenge even the most basic elements of the
convention.

"We have been given no time to discuss the six basic objectives and 104
basic principles governing the whole process, while we were told we would
be able to put up our own point of view," said a delegate from one of 28
armed ethnic groups attending the session.

Among the objectives is a clause assuring the military, which has ruled
the country for more than four decades, of a leading role in any future
governing structure.

_____________________________________

June 5, The Age
Burma's constitutional assembly officially no laughing matter - Mark Baker

Rangoon's military Government justly fears ridicule. Mark Baker reports
from Singapore.

The fate of democracy in Burma has gone beyond a joke - and that's official.

As more than 1000 mostly hand-picked delegates meet at a heavily guarded
camp on the outskirts of Rangoon - ostensibly drafting a new constitution
to bring an end to four decades of military dictatorship - the regime has
decreed that this is no laughing matter.

Directives have been issued to police and military intelligence units
throughout the country that "people who make fun of the convention are to
be exposed and arrested", according to a broadcast by the exiled
Democratic Voice of Burma radio network.

The regime has good reason to fear ridicule. The United Nations' human
rights special envoy, Paolo Sergio Pinheiro, this week denounced the
convention as an absurd and surreal event with participants living under
"mass house arrest".

Delegates are barred from leaving the compound or communicating with
family and friends outside. All cameras and recording equipment have been
confiscated.

Officials are reported to have declared that anyone criticising the
convention or making anti-government statements faces up to 20 years in
prison.

Few participants are likely to step out of line. Of the 1088 attending,
only 17 representatives of ethnic minority groups were not screened and
selected by the regime.

There is no delegate from the National League for Democracy, the party
that won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was barred from taking
power by the military.

A year after the regime launched a bloody political crackdown, with a
massacre in which as many as 100 opposition supporters were killed, NLD
leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest at her family's
residence in Rangoon - and the prospects of a end to Burma's political
stalemate seem more remote than ever.

The NLD refused to join the convention unless Ms Suu Kyi and her most
senior deputy, Tin Oo, were freed from detention. And without the
participation of the NLD, the generals have no hope of persuading the
world that their so-called "roadmap" to lead the country back to civilian
rule is anything more than the latest ruse to extend their grip on power.

In perhaps the clearest indication of the regime's intentions, a
commentary in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper said last month:
"Only if the state's defence and security forces are strong will it be
safe against foreign invasions. Therefore, a strong and modern Tatmadaw
(military) is necessary for the defence of the state."

Mr Pinheiro, who has twice been refused permission to visit Burma this
year, dismisses the convention process as "a meaningless and undemocratic
exercise" at odds with the continuing political repression across the
country.

"If you go through this path you will not be successful. It will not work
. . . It will not work on the Moon. It will not work on Mars," the
exasperated diplomat told journalists in Bangkok.

Western nations, including the United States and Australia, joined him
this week in denouncing the lack of progress towards democracy.

But as foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian
Nations prepare for their annual gathering in Indonesia later this month,
there is no sign that fellow member Burma will face any real pressure from
its neighbours to initiate genuine reforms.

At the summit in Bali last November, regional heads of government backed
away from any public criticism of the Burmese regime after being assured
by General Khin Nyunt, the Prime Minister, that Ms Suu Kyi would soon be
freed.

Despite this shameless lie, six months on, the general was this week
warmly welcomed during visits to Malaysia and Thailand - supposedly two of
the most liberal Asean states.

In Kuala Lumpur, the much-vaunted new broom of Prime Minister Abdullah
Badawi was used to deftly sweep the fate of Burma's democracy campaigners
under the red carpet rolled out for General Khin Nyunt.

After a lengthy meeting between the general and Mr Abdullah, Foreign
Minister Syed Hamid Albar said it was not Malaysia's prerogative to
question the continued detention of the Nobel Peace laureate. "It is
something that is within their internal power," he said.

In a sign that little has changed since the authoritarian days of Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, exiled Burmese journalist Minn Kyaw was abducted in
Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, while on his way to report the arrival of General
Khin Nyunt.

The critic of the Rangoon regime says he was hooded and imprisoned for 12
hours in a shipping container and repeatedly assaulted by a group he
identified as Malaysian police special branch officers. The police claim
ignorance.

If the Burmese people are no longer permitted to laugh at their unending
nightmare, they might instead cry.


ON THE BORDER
_____________________________________

June 7, The Nation
Confessions of a Burma-maid smuggler - Punnee Amornviputpanich

A former civil servant has been running a brisk human-trafficking business
in the border province of Tak, raking in a monthly smuggling income
topping Bt1 million.

'I smuggle in more than 200 Burmese girls and women every month. They are
employed as housemaids,' said 'Wor', who understandably declined to give
his surname. The trafficker, in his mid-50s, said he collected at least
Bt5,000 per head from Thai employers.

That sum could climb as high as Bt8,000 per head if employers wanted
housemaids delivered to their doorsteps, with added costs for specific
requests such as looks and languages.

'The girls get more expensive if you ask for beauty, language fluency and
any specific age,' Wor said.

The smuggler said the girls, aged between 13 and 30, learn housework and
Thai-language basics at an isolated orchard in Tak before they are sent to
their employers.

'But Thai is not a prerequisite language, because some of the employers
want their maids speaking English,' he added.

Wor said he began smuggling Burmese housemaids over a decade ago and had
delivered girls to every corner of the country. Most of his clients are
senior police or military officers and high-ranking government officials
whose mansions require more than one maid.

'My business is booming through word of mouth,' said Wor, who added that
his overhead costs include monthly five-digit bribes to the police. 'But
it's not easy because some temporary checkpoints are being set up and we
can't always bribe. Sometimes, police make arrests,' he said.

Wor uses two vehicles when delivering housemaids. The first surveys
checkpoints along the trafficking route, while the second trails at a
distance of at least five kilometres, waiting for 'all-clears' from up
front. The smuggled girls are packed into the second vehicle.

'We need at least three illegal immigrants in the vehicle, or else we end
up delivering at a loss,' said Wor.

He thinks his services are quite popular, mainly because he offers a
guarantee of satisfaction and requires housemaids to serve their employers
for at least one year.

'If you are not happy with the girls we sent to you, you can ask for
replacements. We can handle, that but you must inform us within one year',
he added.The smuggler admits that he has slapped and hit Burmese
housemaids who dared flee from their employers' houses, or those he
considered poor workers. 'I must teach them a lesson. They must obey
orders,' Wor said.

But he said he also enforced a strict no-sexual-abuse policy amongst his
clients, although that policy is grounded in business, rather than
humanitarian concerns.

'We will take back our girls immediately if we receive complaints of
sexual assault. If I don't do this, girls will no longer come to work with
me', he said.

Malikhi, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Burma, said she had worked
as a housemaid in Bangkok for more than 10 years and was now earning
Bt1,800 a month. She said she managed to send Bt10,000 home to her family
each year. 'My family can get the money through my agent,' she said. The
agent has network members in Burma who can contact Malikhi's mother and
let the two speak via mobile phone.

Malikhi gives the money to the agent in Bangkok, plus phone tolls and
handling fees equivalent to 10 per cent of the amount her mother
receives.Pranom Somwong, an official with an organisation that helps
immigrant workers, said alien housemaids often face sexual harassment,
detention and forced labour. 'When they are sexually abused, they can't go
to police because of fear they will be deported,' she said.

She said some Burmese maids worked without pay for up to four
years.'Despite our help in negotiations, in the end the girl only received
Bt6,000 before deportation,' Pranom said. She added that affluent
employers were more likely to take advantage of illegal immigrants, who
cannot seek protection from the authorities.

Sompong Sakaew, an official at the Rak Thai Foundation, said the
government should relax conditions on immigrants who wanted to register
themselves. 'When they are registered, they will pay tax and receive state
protection', he said.

He believes illegal immigrants sent up to Bt500 million a year to their
families in foreign countries.

_____________________________________

June 6, The Nation
Police prey on Burmese: report - Punnee Amornviputpanich

Human-rights body alleges sexual molestation and theft on border

Police are raping and robbing Burmese immigrants, including those who have
legally entered Thailand, activists said.

'We have received a number of complaints about human rights violations by
police and immigration officials,' said Burmese national Mo Chu,
secretary-general of an association working to protect the rights of
Burmese workers in Tak's Mae Sot district.

He said many police officers hung around in front of factories or along
roadsides, arresting any Burmese they saw.

'Even if you have legal permits to stay in Thailand, police officers tear
your papers up before your eyes,' Mo Chu said, adding that those
immigrants who argued with police were often imprisoned.

According to the activist, Burmese immigrants are often forced to hand
over at least Bt200 to police or risk being put in jailed until friends
come to pay a 'ransom' of at least Bt500 for their release.

'Police also demanded to sleep with good-looking female immigrants. These
girls are raped and sometimes gang-raped,' Mo Chu alleged.

'Manit', a Thai volunteer who works with ethnic Karens, detailed the
plight of Burmese girls who he said had been gang-raped.

'They can't do anything except swallow their pain,' said Manit, adding
that he had paid ransoms for jailed Burmese at Mae Sot police station
numerous times.

Mo Chu said the Burmese immigrants who were detained pending deportation
suffered at the hands of immigration officials.

'I haven't seen any immigrants carrying bags out of Thailand when they are
deported. Why' The immigration officials have taken away all their
belongings, even clothes,' he said.

Manit said the immigrants called these officers and officials 'dogs'.

'I have witnessed immigration officials grope the breasts of Burmese
women, saying they wanted to check if any money was being hidden,' he
said.

Now that more organisations are stepping in to help immigrants, Manit
said, corrupt government officials have resorted to hiring henchmen to do
their dirty work.

'These men threaten the immigrants and demand money', the volunteer said.

Noi, a 29-year-old Burmese woman, said she had been deported from Thailand
numerous times during the past 10 years after she had sneaked across the
border to get work as a housemaid in Bangkok.

'When I'm arrested, I have to bribe police officers or else I'll be
jailed,' she said.

Pranom Somwong, an official with an organisation that helps immigrant
workers, said that many government officials had abused the rights of
immigrants.

'Why do the Burmese immigrants have to stand for up to 10 hours in packed
vehicles while being deported'' she asked.


BUSINESS / MONEY
_____________________________________

June 7, Xinhua News Service
ASEAN-China Business Council Meeting opens in Myanmar

Yangon: The Third Annual Meeting of the Business Council of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN) and China opened here
Monday to jointly explore the development issues of the two parties in
trade and economic cooperation.

Present at the opening session of the ASEAN-China Business Council (ACBC)
meeting were Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt, First Secretary of
the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council Lieutenant-General Soe
Win, Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International
Trade (CCPIT) Wan Jifei, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy Yu
Boren, ASEAN ambassadors as well as representatives of the ASEAN-CCI
(Chambers of Commerce and Industry).

Khin Nyunt and Wan Jifei delivered speeches on the occasion.

The three-day ACBC meeting will focus discussions on the role of chambers
of commerce and industry played under the framework ofASEAN-China FTA
(Free Trade Area).

The discussions will also cover trade and facilitation measures, trade
supporting measures, the development of small and medium enterprises of
ASEAN and China as well as regular business and information exchange.

The ACBC was established in November 2001 in Jakarta, aimed at promoting
dialogue and cooperation between ASEAN and China and strengthening trade
and investment ties between the two parties as well as supporting ASEAN
integration.

The ACBC meeting will be followed by the 16th ASEAN-CCI Bi-Annual
Conference and the 61st Council Meeting.

The trade volume between ASEAN and China increased by 8 times in the past
decade, reaching 78 billion US dollars in 2003. ASEAN has become China's
fourth trading partner with the trade volume tending to reach 100 billion
dollars by 2005.

_____________________________________


June 6, ABS-CBN
Burma’s continuing turmoil bars entry to Europe-Asean club

Hanoi: The continuing political turmoil in Burma is hindering its
application to participate in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), with
member-countries fearing that its internal crisis could affect the
relations of the two regional groups, it was learned Sunday.

Hanoi is hosting this year’s Asem Summit. Among the issues to be tackled
include the applications of Burma, Laos and Cambodia, as well as the 10
new members of the European Union.

Nguyen Dang Quang, director general of Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and head of the Asem 5 secretariat, said some member-countries of
Asem do not favor the admission of Burma.

“While there are no regulations or rules to admission in Asem, some
countries oppose the admission of Burma as they link [political]
developments in that country to admission in the group”, said Quang in his
speech during the media seminar on Asem recently held here.

He added: “We have not found solutions yet, but this has been discussed in
several meetings and we hope to resolve this issue in an appropriate
manner.”

Asem members are still in a deadlock on whether or not to admit the 10 new
members of EU and the three Asian countries.

David Fouquet, head of the Asia Europe Foundation based in Brussels, said
EU members are not unanimous on using as basis for admission a nation’s
political and economic status.

“EU is not unanimous on whether this is a fundamental issue,” said
Fouquet. He said several Asem members want to “apply pressure on Burma to
adopt to international standards of behavior as the situation in Laos,
Cambodia, and Burma threatens to affect EU.”

“It’s a major issue that policy-makers have to attend to,” said Fouquet.
Asem is composed of core members of the two regional groups the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the European Union
(EU).

Asian members include the Philippines, Burma, China, Indonesia, Japan,
South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The EU members are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,
Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The new EU members seeking Asem membership include Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. E. Torres


REGIONAL
_____________________________________

June 6, The Nation
PM: Secure Burma good for Thailand

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra spoke yesterday on how a politically and
economically secure Burma would ultimately benefit Thailand while
emphasising his policy of non-intervention in the Burmese democracy
movement.

Burmese Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt made a state visit to Thailand
on Friday. He said his government had been in talks with democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, and he apparently produced pictures of the proceedings.
In a radio address yesterday Thaksin said he had told his state visitor of
the international community's concerns about Burma and the need to be
aware of that community's desires lest efforts such as Thaksin's
brainchild 'road map to democracy' come to nothing.

Thaksin stressed that Thailand would not interfere in Burma's internal
affairs and would 'preserve tact so that Burma understands what we are
thinking of'.

Talks between the two prime ministers lasted almost an hour. The two
leaders discussed border cooperation, security and narcotics before a full
panel session, a continuation on the four-country economic-cooperation
talks in Pukam last November.

Throughout Thaksin reiterated his belief that a well-off Burma would make
for a happy Thailand. The Prime Minister said a Burma with no border wars,
reduced narcotics and less poverty would alleviate Thai labour woes and
issues of human trafficking and communicable disease.

'Every year we spend tens of billions of baht tackling crime resulting
from illegal entry,' said Thaksin.

Instead the Prime Minister would rather have cheap cross-border labour
regulated. For instance, he said Thailand could benefit from reduced
production costs by hiring Burmese workers for certain production phases
before final processing of goods in Thailand.

In that way Thailand could compete with the cheap Chinese market, he said,
noting that baby-corn producers in Thailand and Laos had already struck
similar deals to undercut the economic advantages of their huge neighbour
to the north.

Thaksin also said that on Tuesday Eduardo M Conjuangco, president of the
Filipino Miguel Corporation, which produces San Miguel beer, had offered
to buy the Amarit brewery and move his brewing to Thailand. Conjuangco is
prepared, the prime minister said, to invest more than Bt20 billion in
beer and other interests including food-processing, a business with a
large market share in Asia.


INTERNATIONAL
_____________________________________

June 5, Associated Press
Human rights watch urges Myanmar to remove children from army

Bangkok: A human rights group has urged Myanmar's military government to
immediately discharge child soldiers from its army after a U.N. panel
found that the practice was widespread there in violation of international
laws.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said 20 percent or more of Myanmar's
soldiers on active duty are under the age of 18. Myanmar has an estimated
350,000 soldiers in its national army, making it the biggest army of child
soldiers in the world, according to Human Rights Watch and other groups.

"Burma's use of children as soldiers is unacceptable," Jo Becker of Human
Rights Watch said in a statement received Saturday.

On Friday, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said it was
"extremely concerned" at the use of children as soldiers by both the
government and armed ethnic opposition groups in Myanmar in violation of
the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The convention, which Myanmar ratified in 1991, prohibits the recruitment
of children under the age of 15 or their use in armed conflict. The
convention states that signatories' national laws overrule the convention;
Myanmar's own laws state that military recruits must be at least 18 years
old.

The U.N. committee also urged the Myanmar government to discharge child
soldiers, ensure that all new recruits are at least 18 and enlist
voluntarily, and provide educational assistance to children affected by
conflict.

The junta "should act immediately on the U.N. recommendations and end this
terrible practice," Becker said in the statement.

Human Rights Watch said after an investigation in 2002 that there was
widespread forced recruitment of children as young as 11 to Myanmar's
military. At least 19 armed opposition groups in Myanmar also recruit
child soldiers, although on a much smaller scale, it said.

Myanmar's military has denied that it recruits child soldiers, but in
response to overwhelming criticism has set up a committee designed to
prevent such recruitment.

Becker called it a "positive step" but said the government must do more.

Human Rights Watch said recruiters for Myanmar's army apprehend boys at
train and bus stations, markets and other public places, threatening them
with jail if they refuse to join up.

Former child soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported that
recruiters receive cash and bags of rice in exchange for new recruits.

After brutal training, child soldiers are deployed into units, where some
are forced to fight against ethnic armed opposition groups, the group
said.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta came
to power after the Aug. 8, 1988, crackdown. According to some estimates,
50 percent of the national budget goes to defense, the main source of
power of the junta.

On the Net:
Human Rights Watch's 2002 report: www.hrw.org/reports/2002/burma/

The Committee on the Rights of the Child's concluding observations:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/docs/crc-observations2004.pdf

_____________________________________

June 7, Straits Times via AP
Forced-labour report could trigger Myanmar sanctions

Bangkok: Myanmar's military government does not appear to be serious about
eliminating the use of forced labour, according to an International Labour
Organisation (ILO) report.

The report has been prepared for an ILO panel meeting on Myanmar to be
held in Geneva on Saturday.

If the panel's findings are critical, they could trigger the reactivation
of an ILO resolution passed in 2000 that was tantamount to a call by the
United Nations body for its member states to impose sanctions against
Myanmar.

The ILO has long accused Myanmar's ruling junta of using forced labour,
especially for public-works projects such as road-building.

Despite 'positive developments' in Myanmar since late last year, 40 new
complaints of forced labour had been received - 21 of which had been
forwarded by the ILO to a committee set up by the junta to deal with the
problem.

The committee had yet to find 'merit in any of the complaints', even those
backed by documentary evidence, the ILO report said.

'If the official position of the committee continued to be that the
allegations were unfounded, this would inevitably cast doubt on the
credibility of the committee and its work, particularly given the
increasing number of allegations.'

The US State Department and the London-based human-rights group Amnesty
International have made similar allegations about forced labour but the
junta claims to have mainly eliminated the problem.

The ILO softened its position and suspended its call for sanctions after
the government agreed last year to an action plan for the complete
elimination of all forced labour.

But the ILO has twice suspended work on the plan due to tensions with the
junta. The first time followed the arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi in May 2003.

The second came after three Myanmar citizens were sentenced to death in
November for treason after having been accused of having links with the
ILO. Their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.

Alleged forced-labour cases include road-building, construction work and
forced recruitment into the army. Seven of the nine cases of forced
military recruitment involved boys of 13 to 16.

The government denied the allegations but the ILO report said its
representative had seen evidence to contradict the assertions of the
authorities.