BurmaNet News, June 5, 2007

[Editor]

June 5, 2007 Issue # 3219

INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Burma environmentalist urges junta action on deforestation
Xinhua: Myanmar to auction some state-owned buildings after move of capital
AP: Myanmar's constitution-drafting convention to meet next month for
final session
DVB: Military names Maymyo project Yadanabon Naypyidaw

ON THE BORDER
Reuters: In a Thai border town, Burmese workers toil in penury
Irrawaddy: Mae Sot metropolis plan
DVB: Burma-based rebels launch attack on Moreh

BUSINESS / TRADE
The Business Times Singapore: S'pore firm to explore carbon reduction
projects; Plantation Resources will tie up with UK firm for work in
Myanmar
Global Insight: Daewoo: Myanmar gas delivery via pipeline a priority

HEALTH / AIDS
DVB: Burma’s children still struggling with beri-beri

REGIONAL
VOA: Burmese acting Prime Minister travels to China
Irrawaddy: Call for Salween river dams “rethink”

INTERNATIONAL
DVB: Burmese rights activists submit report to ILO

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

June 5, Irrawaddy
Burma environmentalist urges junta action on deforestation - Htet Aung

A prominent Burmese environmentalist has called o­n Burma’s ruling junta
to introduce cleaner development mechanisms instead of relying o­n the
sale of timber that contributes to the country’s already rampant
deforestation.

“I advised the government in my research paper not to rely so much o­n
logging timbers, but to encourage the business of eco-tourism as an
alternative way, which can also conserve our forests,” said U Ohn, general
secretary of the Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation
Association. “But they don’t seem to believe it.”

The Rangoon-based FREDA, the o­nly local NGO devoted to conserving Burma’s
forests, has been active in establishing mangrove nurseries and installing
mangrove plantations in abandoned paddy lands in Burma’s delta area.

U Ohn spoke to The Irrawaddy by phone o­n Monday, o­n the eve of World
Environment Day commemorated today.

Burma contains some 34 million hectares of natural forest—the
second-largest in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

U Ohn said that forests cover about half of the land in the country in
terms of quantity, but the quality of the remaining forests is
questionable. Valuable timbers increasingly fall prey to loggers, leaving
inferior trees in the country’s forests.

“What makes me sad is that people don’t think about how to conserve
natural resources while using them for commercial benefit,” U Ohn said.

The international environmental watchdog group Global Witness reported in
late 2005 that rampant deforestation in Burma’s northern Kachin State was
due to illegal logging by Chinese companies.

Villagers in other parts of Burma frequently report that unrestrained
commercial logging in the past few years has dramatically altered their
local forest areas.

Other international reports o­n Burma allege that deforestation has
worsened under the country’s current military leaders, as the government
and ethnic ceasefire groups continue to harvest timber in frontier areas,
particularly near the country’s borders with Thailand and China.

U Ohn suggests that instead of culling Burma’s forests, the government
should promote eco-tourism by nurturing them. He recommends several areas
that he considers well suited to such a program: the Popa area in Burma’s
central dry zone, the forests around Inle Lake in southern Shan State,
areas of northern Kachin State and western Arakan State, the mangrove
forests in the Irrawaddy Delta and coral reefs in Tenasserim Division.

Natural resources such as oil, gas and timber now top Burma’s list of
exports, with timber accounting for US $519 million in the fiscal year
2006-07.

U Ohn lives by the motto “A tree saved is better than a tree planted.” But
he knows his battle for environmental responsibility in Burma will not be
an easy o­ne.

“As an environmental NGO, our duty is to educate the government as well as
the people to be aware of the country’s environmental issues,” said U Ohn.
“Whether they listen or not depends o­n them. But we have to keep talking
about it.”

____________________________________

June 5, Xinhua General News Service
Myanmar to auction some state-owned buildings after move of capital

The Myanmar government has formed another committee for auctioning some
state-owned buildings left behind in Yangon as a next step to handle such
buildings after move of the former administrative capital to Nay Pyi Taw,
a local news journal reported Tuesday.

The committee, chaired by U Soe Tha, Minister of National Planning and
Economic Development, includes personnel from the ministries of
construction, finance and revenue, home affairs and Yangon City
Development Committee (YCDC), said the Weekly Eleven News quoting an order
of the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

The auction also covers some housing project buildings being implemented
under government supervision and related land plots, the report said,
adding that some of the state-owned buildings are set to be retained.

The committee was the second in a series formed after the government
cabinet announced setting up of a prior committee in late 2006 for taking
over government office buildings and government employees' apartments as
well as the land ownership left behind after the capital move.

Myanmar shifted its former administrative capital of Yangon to Nay Pyi
Taw, about 390 kilometers to the north of Yangon, in November 2005. The
new capital covers an area of 7,054.37 square kilometers and has a
population of 924,608, according to official figures.

Meanwhile, a long-term strategic development plan for Yangon is being
worked out, under which prioritized development projects for the former
capital are also being identified, other local reports said.

The strategic development plan proposal for Yangon, comprehensively
prepared by the Malaysia Industry Government Group for High Technology
(MIGHT) and the Institute of Sultan Iskandar of Urban Habitat and Highrise
(ISI) of Malaysia under a memorandum of understanding signed between the
two institutions and the YCDC in 2002, covers the development plan period
from 2007 to 2020.

The modified long-term plan includes projects of upgrading of transport
infrastructure, mass transit system, electricity supply, water supply and
sanitation, seaport development and town planning as well as promotion of
the city as a tourist destination.

____________________________________

June 5, Associated Press
Myanmar's constitution-drafting convention to meet next month for final
session

A national convention setting guidelines for a new constitution will
resume meeting on July 18 for what will be its final session, Myanmar
state radio and television reported Tuesday night.

The convention's duty is the first stage of a seven-step «road map»
conceived by the country's ruling junta to lead to free elections and the
restoration of democracy. There is no fixed timetable for the process.

The reopening of the convention was announced after a meeting of the
National Convention Convening Commission on Tuesday in the capital
Naypyidaw, said the announcement on radio and TV.

____________________________________

June 05, Democratic Voice of Burma
Military names Maymyo project Yadanabon Naypyidaw

The Burmese military has reportedly named the massive new development
projected underway near Maymyo in Mandalay division, Yadanabon Naypyidaw.

The 7000-acre project, which was launched about seven months, ago is set
to comprise the new Information Technology city and the Yadanabon Myothit
construction project.

An official with the State Peace and Development Council’s Survey
Deportment working near Maymyo told DVB that large areas of farmland had
been seized for the project.

“A total of about 7000 acres of land, which extends from Zaybingyi Station
to [Maymyo] has so far been appropriated . . . Many farms have been taken
over for this and no compensation has been paid to them so far,” the
source said.

“They have also built many training schools there . . . According to
officials, the area is called the second Naypyidaw. A huge billboard touts
it as the Yadanabon Naypyidaw Construction Project.”

Photos of the area show government demolition markers and billboards
designating residential and business areas. The project, tipped to be
worth millions of US dollars, also includes the construction of a number
of new highways near Maymyo and a new business district.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

June 4, Reuters
In a Thai border town, Burmese workers toil in penury - Ed Cropley

Mae Sot, Thailand: The Thai government grandly calls it an "export
processing zone." More appropriate terms for this town, nestled in
jungle-clad hills on the border with Myanmar, might be "sweatshop" or
"labor camp."

Connected to Myanmar by a bridge that opened a decade ago, the once-sleepy
town is home to 235 mainly garment factories, staffed by 36,000 legally
registered migrant workers - and at least four times that number of
illegal ones, according to local labor advocates.

Despite labor laws guaranteeing legal migrants basic rights like a
standard eight-hour working day, paid overtime and a minimum wage, the
regulations are universally flouted, interviews with workers revealed.

Conditions are harsh in the factories, most of them Chinese- or
Taiwanese-owned and set up with government investment incentives. Clothes
are exported to the United States and Japan, among other markets, workers
said.

Typically, migrants work 12-hour days, get one day off a month and are
paid around half the province's 147 baht, or $4.25, daily minimum wage.

"There were no fans and it was very hot," said 38-year-old Ya Zar, a
geography graduate from Yangon University who worked in a knitting factory
for four years before ill health and fatigue forced him to quit.

"Sometimes the women got very affected by the heat and fainted. A lot of
workers couldn't get enough rest so they became tired and sick," said Ya
Zar, who now works for the Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs,
which promotes labor rights among Myanmar migrants.

Although a reporter found no evidence of child labor - Thai law defines
anybody 15 or older as eligible to work - an International Labor
Organization report last year accused Mae Sot factories of treating
teenage workers like slaves.

"Mae Sot has perfected a system where children are literally working day
and night, week after week, for wages that are far below the legal minimum
wage," the ILO report concluded.

Aumnat Nanthahan, chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries in Mae
Sot, 430 kilometers, or 270 miles, northwest of Bangkok, denied that
workers were underpaid, saying employers deduct board and food from
workers living on-site, as well as administrative expenses.

"It depends on their food and where they are staying," Aumnant said. "The
Thai labor law is very strict. Workers work for eight hours a day, and
beyond that is overtime."

Many workers said that dormitory conditions were so cramped they could
hardly sleep, and that the food was inedible.

"Our employer used to give us dirty water to drink and the rice was so
poor we couldn't eat it," said Yin Ma, a 32-year-old who has been working
in Mae Sot for four years and sending money back to her family in central
Myanmar.

She has not seen her 13-year-old daughter in three years.

Unlike many of her colleagues, Yin Ma - who asked that her real name not
be published for fear of reprisals - knew about Thai labor laws, but when
she tried to complain her employer took her work permit, technically
making her an illegal immigrant."I was scared that if I complained the
police would come and I would be deported," she said.

Only when she had quit did she have the time and courage to seek help from
a Thai legal charity and take her claim for 40,000 baht in unpaid wages
and overtime from her former boss, a Chinese businessman, to court.

If successful, the ruling could provide a boost to the 570,000 Myanmar and
743,000 Lao and Cambodian workers working in Thailand's farming,
fisheries, industrial and construction sectors.

Despite the privations, many workers appeared happy, saying they were
better off than being in Myanmar, where four decades of military rule,
economic mismanagement and Western sanctions have left the economy in
ruins.

"In Thailand, we face difficulties, but at least it's a job. In Myanmar,
there's no work at all," Ya Zar said.

Song, a Taiwanese manager at a factory of 200 people, explained away the
low wages by saying they were still way higher than anything available in
Myanmar.

"We try to help them and do the best for them, because their homes and
families are not in Thailand," Song said, showing a reporter around his
factory, a rusting barn whose only ventilation was the breeze coming
through vents in the roof.

Labor activists have tried to put pressure on the factories by targeting
the big name brands that buy from them. The factories have thwarted that
strategy by stitching on labels elsewhere.

"We think the clothes go to the United States, but we don't know the
brand," said Aung Kyaw Soe, 29, drinking green tea at a roadside stall
outside a Thai-owned unit called Thaisun. "They sew all the labels on at
another place in Bangkok."

____________________________________

June 5, Irrawaddy
Mae Sot metropolis plan - Sai Silp

Thai authorities have unveiled an ambitious plan to develop Mae Sot, o­n
the Thai-Burmese border, into a metropolis, which they say could make the
riverside town a regional commercial hub and a major trading post o­n the
road through Burma to India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

Mae Sot’s Mayor, Terdkiat Shinsoranan, said on Tuesday that the local
authority and the government Office of the National Economic and Social
Development Board planned to turn the town into a metropolis by combining
three local administration areas—Tasailuad, Mae Pa and Mae Sot
sub-districts of Tak province, on Burma’s border.

“The project is aimed at promoting Mae Sot as a commercial hub that could
link further to India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan through Burma,”
Terdkiat said.

The residents of 18 communities in the area would be canvassed for their
views on the plan, which Terdkiat said could be begun within a few months.

Terdkiat said the plan would boost Mae Sot’s cross-border trade, which is
currently officially worth 12,000 million baht (US $360 million).
Unofficially, the trade could be worth as much 50,000 million baht ($1,470
million) annually.

Tak Governor Chumporn Ponlarak said the new Mae Sot administration would
be modeled o­n the examples of Pattaya district and metropolitan Bangkok,
which are run by elected local legislative authorities.

Terdkiat said he expected that the new Mae Sot administration would be
better equipped than Bangkok to tackle such local issues as migrant
workers and border trade problems.

Border trade currently suffers because of official restrictions allowing
the import and export of some products, while banning others—leading to
illegal trade. Border tensions between Thailand and Burma also frequently
hamper trade, particularly when checkpoints are closed.

The metropolis plan coincides with a grander plan for an “East-West
Economic Corridor,” a road mainly funded by the Asian Development Bank and
linking Moulmein in eastern Burma to Mae Sot.

The Burmese section of the road would link up other highways in Thailand,
Laos, and Vietnam, creating a communications corridor running the entire
width of mainland Southeast Asia—a distance of 1,450 km. Some sections of
the road in Burma are being funded by Thailand’s government.

____________________________________

June 5, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burma-based rebels launch attack on Moreh

A group of unidentified rebels operating in Burmese territory opened fire
on the India-Burma border trading town of Moreh on Monday night, according
to eyewitnesses.

“The unknown group of people came at about 10pm and opened fire in the
direction of Moreh. Local people raised the alarm and tried to defend
themselves. We could hear sporadic gunfire the whole night,” one Moreh
resident told DVB.

Other eyewitnesses said that the armed group focused their fire on an area
dominated by ethnic Kuki residents, raising concerns that the attack was
the work of the traditional Kuki rivals, the Manipuri Kathe.

Traffic and trading had ground to a halt along the Moreh section of the
India-Burma border yesterday as tension increased between the town’s Kuki
and Kathe communities.

In the past six months, the Burmese and Indian authorities have held
several rounds of high-level security talks on the operations of Manipuri
rebels in Burmese territory.

While the Burmese government has publicly pledged to flush the armed
insurgents out of the country, Indian Assam Rifles leaders said on Monday
that the rebels were still purchasing their weapons from sources inside
Burma.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

June 5, The Business Times Singapore
S'pore firm to explore carbon reduction projects; Plantation Resources
will tie up with UK firm for work in Myanmar

Singapore firm Plantation Resources (PRPL) will cooperate with UK-based
Sindicatum Carbon Capital (SCC) to identify and develop projects in
Myanmar qualifying for carbon credits saleable under the Kyoto Protocol's
Clean Development Mechanism, it said yesterday.

PRPL, which in February this year received a bid from SGX-listed Yoma
Strategic Holdings for nearly 53 per cent of its shares, is already
developing a 40,000 hectare plantation in Myanmar for jatropha curcas,
whose seeds are used to produce oil for bio-diesel.

'We intend to help put Myanmar on the 'carbon credit' roadmap which will
in turn help put more development dollars into this country,' said Serge
Pun, director of PRPL and chairman and CEO of Yoma.

Myanmar is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, which means that certain
projects in the country can qualify to produce Carbon Emission Reduction
(CER) credits, with each CER representing a one metric tonne reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions.

The credits are sold mainly to European buyers to offset their own
emissions. The market for such project-based CERs grew to over US$4.8
billion in 2006, nearly double that of the previous year, according to the
World Bank's State of the Carbon Market 2007 report out last month. Asia
accounted for four-fifths of supply; China dominated the market with over
61 per cent of transacted volumes.

In what is believed to be the first deal of its kind in Myanmar for a
Singaporean firm, PRPL will team up with SCC and a third, local, party
Myanmar Agri-Tech (MAGT) to explore projects with the potential to qualify
for CERs.

MAGT is no stranger to PRPL - it is the owner of the planting rights to
the plantation that PRPL is developing and had appointed the latter to
manage and operate the plantation and sell the produce. Under the new
agreement, MAGT will 'assist in the procurement of rights and information
relevant to specific project developments'.

SCC is a developer and technology provider for greenhouse gas abatement
projects in regions spanning China, Central and South-east Asia, the
Middle East and Central America. It specialises in reducing emissions from
the chemicals, oil and gas, waste management and natural resource sectors.

In Myanmar, the three partners will start with spotting projects in the
landfill and energy sectors. One project in mind is the above-mentioned
jatropha curcas plantation.

____________________________________

June 5, Global Insight
Daewoo: Myanmar gas delivery via pipeline a priority

South Korea's Daewoo Corp. is still in talks with a number of prospective
customers for the output from its Myanmar natural gas assets but now looks
to be favouring a pipeline route to market. In a filing to the Korea
Exchange, Daewoo stated that it is considering gas delivery via pipeline
as a priority. However, the company indicated that the final decision on
the matter will only be made after negotiations are complete.

Significance: China, India and Thailand are each vying for a share of the
spoils from Daewoo's A-1 and A-3 offshore gas fields, while the South
Korean and Japanese liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets are also potential
customers. The latest developments favoured a pipeline route to China and,
while that remains a likely outcome, Daewoo's statement reveals that is
not a certainty (see. Asia-Pacific: 23 April 2007). There is no indication
of just when the negotiations will be complete, but the outcome will be
decisive for the supply balance of any of the markets involved.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

June 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Analysis – Burma’s children still struggling with beri-beri

HIV/AIDS, bird flu and polio may have grabbed most of the recent health
headlines, but there is one disease that perhaps underlines the failings
of Burma’s healthcare response more than any other—beri-beri.

Caused by a lack of thiamine, or vitamin B1, in the diet—previously a
common problem in countries in which polished rice is the staple—beri-beri
has largely been eradicated from the developing world as it is
non-contagious and straightforward to treat.

But in April, an internal UN update on the humanitarian situation said
Burma remained the only nation in which beri-beri was still a reported
cause of child mortality.

“Though in part a result of poor nutritional habits, the fact that
[beri-beri] is the fifth leading cause of infant deaths in [Burma] is
attributable to the inability of families to diversify their food intake,”
the document said.

More than one in ten Burmese children die before their fifth birthday. A
UN report examining child and mother health from 2005—which provides the
most up-to-date figures on the disease—says that beri-beri accounted for
5.5 percent of all deaths among children under five years old in Burma,
compared to 5.7 percent in the case of malaria, the leading cause of
mortality among the whole population.

The Burmese have long favoured a diet of tea, fish paste and betel nut,
all of which inhibit thiamine use in the body. They also rely on a staple
of polished rice, which is low in thiamine. In addition, the country’s
stunted socio-economic status and lack of spending on healthcare means
efforts to combat the disease have been too little, too late.

The United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says that the standard
treatment for an acute case of infant beri-beri is a 50mg injection of
thiamine and a two-to-three week course of thiamine tablets with a total
cost of just 500 kyat. However, the Ministry of Health planned to spend
only 427.8 kyat per capita during the 2006 financial year, its own data
shows. This represents a rise in health expenditure of just 5.2 kyat per
person, or 1.23 percent, compared to the previous year.

In real terms this should be considered a decrease in health spending. At
the beginning of the 2006 financial year, Burma’s currency hit an all-time
low of 1,450 kyat to the US dollar, says the London-based Economist
Intelligence Unit, which estimated 16-percent inflation in Burma during
the same period.

The Ministry of Health Website says that there are still just 348 Maternal
and Child Health Centres in Burma, the same number as in 1988. DVB was
unable to find any evidence that the Ministry of Health has attributed
money to tackling beri-beri. The Department of Health Planning was
unavailable for comment.

“To our knowledge, UNICEF is the only agency working on infantile beriberi
[in Burma] at this time,” said Susan Aitken, the agency’s spokesperson.

In June 2006, the Australian Agency for International Development donated
US $832,000 to UNICEF for a two-year nation-wide project “which aims to
quickly and dramatically reduce infant deaths from beri-beri.” A 2005-2006
survey in 16 townships recorded a beri-beri mortality rate of nearly six
percent.

The UNICEF project aims to provide thiamine supplements to pregnant and
lactating mothers, increase awareness of infantile beri-beri through
increased information with a longer-term strategy aimed at increasing
levels of thiamine in the Burmese diet. Results from the campaign are not
yet available.

The challenge will be reaching rural areas in which 87 percent of all
under-five deaths are recorded and diversifying the average Burmese diet,
a difficult prospect given the deteriorating socio-economic conditions in
the country, as noted by the UN in its internal appraisal of Burma’s
humanitarian situation in April.

A recent household survey conducted by the Central Statistics Office in
collaboration with international humanitarian agencies showed that more
than 30 percent of the Burmese population lives “well below” the poverty
line. In ethnic minority areas the situation is worse than the average.

In Chin State, more than 70 percent of the population lives below the
poverty line, while in East Shan State it is more than half. In Arakan
State, 60 percent of children under five were found to be “moderately
underweight,” the highest levels in the country, where Muslim Rohingyas
living mostly in the north still suffer severe restrictions on food
supplies.

As the UN Food and Agriculture Association has said previously, “Over the
years beri-beri has tended to disappear as economic conditions have
improved and diet has become more varied.”

Given that neither of these two critical factors are moving in the right
direction and funding to tackle the disease is still miniscule, Burma
appears to have a long way to go before it can join the rest of the world
in eradicating beri-beri.

Reporting by Clive Parker—a freelance journalist based in Chiang Mai,
Thailand.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

June 5, Voice of America
Burmese acting Prime Minister travels to China

Chinese state media say Burma's acting prime minister is on his way to
Beijing for a five-day goodwill visit.

The Xinhua news agency says General Thein Sein left the Burmese
administrative capital of Nay Pyi Taw today.

The report says the general was invited to China by the Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress.

The general is traveling with Burma's attorney-general and the ministers
of foreign affairs, commerce and energy. During the trip, the delegation
is scheduled to visit China's southwestern province of Yunnan, which
borders Burma.

Military-run Burma is one of the most isolated governments in the world
because of its poor human rights track record and reluctance to implement
democratic reforms.

The United States and European nations have imposed sanctions on Burma.
China is one of the few countries that maintains relations with Burma's
military regime.

____________________________________

June 5, Irrawaddy
Call for Salween river dams “rethink” - Violet Cho

The Burma Rivers Network, a newly-founded forum of 10 organizations
representing dam-affected communities from different states of Burma, has
called o­n international companies investing in hydropower projects there
to consider the environmental and social impact involved.

BRN Secretary Aung Ngyeh told The Irrawaddy o­n Tuesday: “We want the
international companies to rethink their hydropower projects, such as Ta
Sang, Hat Gyi and Wei Gyi, o­n the Salween River, because these massive
dams would definitely cause permanent problems for the livelihood of the
people and the river’s ecosystem.”

According to Salween Watch, there are plans for five major dams o­n the
Salween River. The first, Hat Gyi, is to be built by the Chinese
state-owned Sino Hydro Corporation in a joint venture with the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), and preparations have already
begun.

BRN’s appeal, contained in a statement released Tuesday, said main
investors in the Salween dams, such as China, India and Thailand, have
their own domestic regulations for environmental impact assessments and
community participation in decision-making. But these didn’t apply in the
case of the Salween projects.

Sai Sai, a local coordinator for BRN, was quoted in the statement as
saying: “Burma’s neighbors are taking advantage of the lack of regulation
of development projects in Burma for their own economic interest.”

BRN intends to closely monitor the environmental impact and social
disruption of the planned dams and to keep the international community and
investors informed.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

June 4, Democratic Voice of Burma
Burmese rights activists submit report to ILO

Burmese labour rights activists have submitted a report to the
International Labour Organization’s annual conference in Geneva, detailing
more than 3400 cases of alleged forced labour.

Activists from the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma, the Federation of
Trade Unions-Kawthoolei and the Rakhaing General Workers’ Union presented
the report to ILO delegates at an exclusive discussion on Burma as part of
the International Labour Conference on June 2.

Saw Reh Aye from the FTUK said the report was the result of months of work
in the field and that it included detailed evidence of the military’s
continued use of forced labour.

“We went . . . and took photos, interviewed victims in person and
collected evidence. [Forced labour victims] have been forced to work at
the military camps and they have been forced to deliver the military’s
rations all through the summer,” Saw Reh Aye said.

The ILO’s Committee on the Application of Standards is expected to meet
formally on Burma this week as part of the annual conference and to
release a report recommending further action to be taken by the ILO and
the military to reduce the levels of forced labour in the country.

In February this year, the ILO signed a landmark agreement with the
military, allowing victims of forced labour to file complaints with the
labour rights group without fear of persecution.

While there is evidence to suggest that several forced labour cases have
been successfully resolved through the new mechanism, FTUB head U Maung
Maung said the report to the conference showed that cases reported to the
ILO represented a small percentage of the actual problem.

“[The State Peace and Development Council] have said there have only been
25 forced labour complaints . . . we have reported a total of 3145 forced
labour cases,” U Maung Maung said.

“We suggest that there should be ILO officials . . . in other divisions
and states so that victims there will be able to file their complaints,”
he said.