UN scolds Myanmar over forced labor

UN scolds Myanmar over forced labor

UNITED NATIONS (Reuter): Myanmar may be using forced labor to restore landmarks for foreign tourists in an effort to promote 1996 as "Visit Myanmar Year," the United Nations said in a report released on Monday.

The report to the General Assembly by a UN special human rights investigator also speaks of summary executions, torture and rape by the army with impunity.

The human rights rapporteur, Yozo Yokata of Japan, said there were allegations that Burma, which calls itself Myanmar, had used forced labor to restore such tourist sites as Mandalay Palace and upgrade the country's railways, roads and airports.

The government, he said, had proclaimed 1996 as "Visit Myanmar Year," an action which could be viewed as a sign of opening up of the country.

"Forced labor has allegedly been used to restore some of the tourist sights," he said. Workers must pay to rent bulldozers, buy their own tools and supply their own food.

In Karen state, scene of sporadic fighting between the military and insurgent groups, Yokata said several sources reported an increase of forced labor, accompanied by "physical abuse, appalling living conditions and arbitrary killings of porters who are unable to perform their tasks."

Last April, for example, two porters were beaten to death for requesting water supplies that had been cut in Ka Neh Lay.

In response, the government denied allegations of killings and torture. It also said it was a tradition in Myanmar's culture to donate labor in the building of pagodas, monasteries, roads and bridges.

The local populace as well as army and government employees "participate enthusiastically and conscientiously," and UN agencies were involved in such restoration projects, the government said.

Rape

Soldiers, the UN report said, viewed rape as a right with women prisoners, in forced labor camps and among porters; officers sometimes encouraged such behavior.

"These include the undressing of women in public, touching breasts or sucking nipples, raping and gang-raping women individually or in groups," Yokata said.

The government, which answered each point in the report, said the charges were unfounded and it could do little unless the victims brought their cases to the proper authorities.

The ruling military government has not recognized 1990 elections and has refused to give up power to followers of Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in July. Yokata last visited Myanmar in October but did not include his observations in this report.

He told reporters at Yangon airport then that he was impressed with both her willingness and the government's readiness "to meet each other and to work together."

Nevertheless, he said in the report that politicians were still imprisoned, and there was still a "high-level of intimidation" although jailing people for anti-government activities appeared less frequent.