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Comments on "ILO mission opens talk



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Comments on ILO press release,
"ILO mission opens talks with Government in Myanmar (Burma)"

According to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) press release of 23 
May 2000 (full text below), a technical cooperation mission from the ILO 
has gone to Burma to hold discussions on the implementation of the 
recommendations of a 1998 commission of inquiry which found the use of 
forced and compulsory labour in that country to be widespread. The ILO 
Director-General, Juan Somavia, is quoted as saying that "The sole purpose 
of the visit of the team is to establish with the government a credible 
plan of action to ensure the full implementation of the commission's 
recommendations."

The mission?s mandate is thus not to inquire whether or not forced labour 
exists in Burma --  the ILO considers that this has been proved (see the 
report of its Commission of Inquiry into forced labour in Burma) --  but to 
help bring the practice to an end.

The Director-General could perhaps have been more specific regarding the 
time frame, seeing  that at its 87th session (June 1999) the ILO Conference 
decided that " ... the Government of Myanmar should cease to benefit from 
any technical cooperation or assistance from the ILO, except for the 
purpose of DIRECT assistance to implement IMMEDIATELY the recommendations 
of the Commission of Inquiry..." [emphasis added]

Given these restrictions, the invitation to the ILO mission implies that 
the Burmese military has accepted the Commission?s report and is eager to 
implement the recommendations. This understanding is reinforced by the 
statement in the press release that  "the Government of Myanmar (Burma) has 
provided assurances that the mission will be given full cooperation to 
effectively carry out its responsibilities" i.e. assistance in the 
immediate implementation of the recommendations. No-one, of course, would 
believe that the honourable generals would stoop to inviting the mission 
merely in order to soften the treatment they are likely to receive at the 
ILO Conference (30 May-15 June).


The major ILO recommendations are that:

1)   The legislation (Village and Towns Acts) which allows civilian 
authorities to requisition compulsory labour should be amended to bring it 
into line with the relevant ILO standards;

2)   ?In actual practice, no more forced or compulsory labour be imposed by 
the authorities, IN PARTICULAR THE MILITARY? [emphasis added];

3)    Penalties should be imposed on people who exact forced labour;

  (see below for the full text of the recommendations)

The key recommendation is No. 2 since, according to most reports and the 
Commission?s findings, it is the Burmese MILITARY  which is largely 
responsible for requisitioning forced labour.

However, the Burmese military, for instance in the remarkable document, 
?Memorandum of the Government of Myanmar on the Report of the 
Director-General to the members of the Governing Body dated 21 May 1999?, 
accessible on the ILO website at:

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/gb/docs/gb276/gb-6-a2.htm

is curiously reluctant to acknowledge this particular recommendation. It 
prefers rather to emphasise recommendation No. 1, to amend the Village and 
Towns Acts, which permit village headmen and other CIVILIAN  authorities to 
requisition labour.  Referring to this recommendation, military spokesmen 
frequently cite Order 1/99 of 14 May 1999, ?Order Directing Not To Exercise 
Powers Under Certain Provisions of The Towns Act, 1907 and the Village Act, 
1907? as demonstrating the SPDC?s commitment to carrying out the ILO's 
recommendations. However, this Order also refers only to civilian 
authorities, and the distribution list notably omits the army.  Since 
little or no forced labour is at the initiative of civilian authorities and 
since, as the Commission mentioned, these Acts are not cited by the 
officers who requisition forced labour, an emphasis on the amendment of the 
Village and Towns Acts must be seen as a relative red herring.

In the SPDC Memorandum, recommendation No. 2, in an astonishing display of 
semantic legerdemain, is subsumed under the first recommendation, and made 
to say merely that the Order (presumably 1/99, which was not even issued 
when the Commission?s report was published in July 1998) should be made 
public (see following paras and the Memorandum).


According to the SPDC?s Memorandum:

?The recommendations made by the Commission were: firstly, that the Village 
Act and Towns Act be brought in line with Convention No. 29?.?

?The second recommendation of the Commission of Inquiry stipulates that the 
Order be made public. ...?

?The third recommendation says that penalties should be imposed for persons 
under section 374 of the Penal Code for transgression. ??

Nothing is said about military requisition of forced labour.


I think the ILO team is going to have an interesting time in Rangoon. Some 
observers think that ?The New Light of Myanmar? attack on the ILO reported 
in a 24 May AFP wire (see text below)  indicates that unless the mission is 
nice to them, the generals may withdraw from the ILO rather than face 
severe condemnation at the ILO Conference which begins next week. However, 
the ILO Constitution (Article 1, para 5) states 
that:
     "No Member of the International Labour Organization may withdraw from the
     Organization without giving notice of its intention so to do to the 
Director-General
     of the International Labour Office. Such notice shall take effect two 
years after the
     date of its reception by the Director-General, subject to the Member 
having at that
     time fulfilled all financial obligations arising out of its 
membership. When a Member
     has ratified any international labour Convention, such withdrawal 
shall not affect the
     continued validity for the period provided for in the Convention of 
all obligations
     arising thereunder or relating thereto". So that would not work.

David Arnott, Geneva, 24 May 2000

************************

ILO PRESS RELEASE OF 23 MAY

Public information

ILO mission opens talks with Government in Myanmar (Burma)

Tuesday 23 May 2000
  ( ILO/00/18 )

GENEVA (ILO News) - A technical cooperation mission of the International 
Labour Office (ILO) is expected to begin discussions on Wednesday in 
Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) with the Government of Myanmar on the 
implementation of the recommendations of a 1998 Commission of Inquiry *, 
which found the use of forced and compulsory labour in that country to be 
widespread.

The Director-General of the International Labour Office, Mr. Juan Somavia, 
underlined in a recent letter to the Department of Labour of Myanmar 
(Burma) that this technical cooperation effort is to be based on the 
conclusions and the recommendations of the 1998 Commission.

In a statement in Geneva today, Mr. Somavia stressed that "the sole purpose 
of the visit of the team is to establish with the Government a credible 
plan of action to ensure the full implementation of the Commission's 
recommendations."

This Commission, which examined over 6,000 pages of documents and heard 
testimony from hundreds of persons, many with eye-witness experience of 
forced labour practices, recommended that the Government take the following 
steps:

? that legislation, in particular the Village and Towns Acts, be brought 
into line with the terms of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), 
which Myanmar (Burma) has ratified;

? that no more forced or compulsory labour be imposed by the authorities, 
particularly by the military;

? that penalties which may be imposed for the exaction of forced labour be 
strictly enforced, with thorough investigation, prosecution and adequate 
punishment of those found guilty, in conformity with article 25 of the ILO 
Convention.

Following a series of communications with the ILO, the Government of 
Myanmar (Burma) has provided assurances that the mission will be given full 
cooperation to effectively carry out its responsibilities.

The implementation of the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry on 
Forced Labour in Myanmar (Burma) has been discussed by the Governing Body 
of the ILO on several occasions. At its most recent session in March, the 
Governing Body invoked article 33 of the Constitution, recommending that 
the International Labour Conference "take such action as it may
deem wise and expedient to secure compliance" if a government fails to 
comply with the recommendations of a Commission of Inquiry. The decision to 
invoke article 33 and place such an item on the agenda of the International 
Labour Conference was unprecedented in the ILO's history.

The Governing Body has formulated a set of measures, which are to be 
presented to the International Labour Conference. It is expected that the 
current mission will also report to the Conference, which will meet in 
Geneva from 30 May to 15 June 2000.

The mission to Myanmar (Burma) is led by Mr. Francis Maupain, Special 
Adviser to the ILO Director-General and will include officials from the ILO 
headquarters in Geneva and from its regional office in Bangkok.

                                             * * * * *

* Forced labour in Myanmar (Burma). Report of the Commission of Inquiry 
appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour 
Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced 
Labour  Convention, 1930 (No. 29), Geneva, 1998.

**********************

TEXT OF THE COMMISSION?S RECOMMENDATIONS

539. In view of the Government's flagrant and persistent failure to comply 
with the Convention, the Commission urges the Government to take the 
necessary steps to ensure:

(a) that the relevant legislative texts, in particular the Village Act and 
the Towns Act, be brought into line with the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 
(No. 29) as already requested by the Committee of Experts on the 
Application of Conventions and Recommendations and promised by the 
Government for over 30 years,(1033) and again announced in the Government's 
observations on the complaint.(1034) This should be done without further 
delay and completed at the very latest by 1 May 1999;

(b) that in actual practice, no more forced or compulsory labour be imposed 
by the authorities, in particular the military. This is all the more 
important since the powers to impose compulsory labour appear to be taken 
for granted, without any reference to the Village Act or Towns Act.(1035) 
Thus, besides amending the legislation, concrete action needs to be taken 
immediately for each and every of the many fields of forced labour examined 
in Chapters 12 and 13 above to stop the present practice. This must not be 
done by secret directives, which are against the rule of law and have been 
ineffective, but through public acts of the Executive promulgated and made 
known to all levels of the military and to the whole population. Also, 
action must not be limited to the issue of wage payment; it must ensure 
that nobody is compelled to work against his or her will. Nonetheless, the 
budgeting of adequate means to hire free wage labour for the public 
activities which are today based on forced and unpaid labour is also required;

(c) that the penalties which may be imposed under section 374 of the Penal 
Code for the exaction of forced or compulsory labour(1036) be strictly 
enforced, in conformity with Article 25 of the Convention. This requires 
thorough investigation, prosecution and adequate punishment of those found 
guilty. As pointed out in 1994 by the Governing Body committee set up to 
consider the representation made by the ICFTU under article 24 of the ILO 
Constitution, alleging nonobservance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour 
Convention, 1930 (No. 29),(1037) the penal prosecution of those resorting 
to coercion appeared all the more important since the blurring of the 
borderline between compulsory and voluntary labour, recurrent throughout 
the Government's statements to the committee, was all the more likely to 
occur in actual recruitment by local or military officials. The power to 
impose compulsory labour will not cease to be taken for granted unless 
those used to exercising it are actually brought to face criminal 
responsibility.

540. The recommendations made by the Commission require action to be taken 
by the Government of Myanmar without delay. The task of the Commission of 
Inquiry is completed by the signature of its report, but it is desirable 
that the International Labour Organization should be kept informed of the 
progress made in giving effect to the recommendations of the Commission. 
The Commission therefore recommends that the Government of Myanmar should 
indicate regularly in its reports under article 22 of the Constitution of 
the International Labour Organization concerning the measures taken by it 
to give effect  to the provisions of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 
(No. 29), the action taken during the period under review to give effect to 
the recommendations contained in the present report. In addition, the 
Government may wish to include in its reports information on the state of 
national law and practice with regard to compulsory military service.

Most of the relevant ILO documents can be found on
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/gb/docs/gb277/index.htm#GB

and the Report of the Commission of Inquiry is on
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/gb/docs/gb273/myanmar.htm

********************************
AFP WIRE OF 24 MAY

ILO mission to Myanmar opens amidst government vitriol

YANGON, May 24 (AFP) - As a delegation of the International Labour
Organisation began a first-ever mission to Yangon Wednesday, Myanmar's ruling
junta lashed out at the ILO as an undignified organization controlled by big
powers.

The three-man delegation will hold talks for three days with the Myanmar
regime on implementation of ILO recommendations against forced labour,
alleged to be widely practised in the country.

The ILO refused to comment on the specifics of its mission to Myanmar, but
businesspeople in Yangon said they expected ILO officials to tour their
factories to inspect for signs of forced or child labor.

And diplomatic sources told AFP they expected representatives of the junta
to take ILO officials to visit several jails.

But the state-controlled newspaper New Light of Myanmar dismissed the ILO
mission, saying the ILO "had lost its dignity" because it has abandoned its
"main function of setting down norms for workers' rights."

Instead, the New Light said, the ILO simply promotes the agendas of "new
colonialists" such as Britain and the United States, who try to apply
political pressure on Myanmar.

"We pity the ILO," it said.

Diplomatic sources said the Myanmar government's simultaneous slamming of
the ILO while allowing the organization into Yangon seemed 
"counterproductive,"
but added that the junta becomes extremely defensive on labor issues.

An ILO commission of enquiry in a report in August 1999 found compulsory
labour in Myanmar was practised in a "systematic manner with a total
disregard for the human dignity, safety and health" of the people.

A study done by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions had
previously put the number of people in Myanmar subjected to different forms
of forced labour at more than 800,000.

The ILO governing body ordered Myanmar's case to be raised at the
organisation's assembly in June 2000, and in March invoked for the first time
an ILO article allowing it to recommend measures to oblige the offending
party to comply.

It recommended that the Myanmar government ensure that its legislation is
brought into line with the terms of the 1930 forced labour convention which
Myanmar has ratified.

It also urged the eradication of forced labour in the country and called
for rigorous prosecution and punishment of those found guilty of exacting
forced labour.

Myanmar had already been marginalised in the ILO in an unprecedented
resolution last June.

ILO delegates in June 1999 voted in an unprecedented move to de-facto
expel Myanmar because of its alleged widespread use of forced labour.
"This is as isolated as a country can get in an organization which does not
have a mechanism for expulsion," ILO spokesman John Doohan said at the  time.

The New Light of Myanmar Tuesday said that it had never been expelled but
rather had voluntarily suspended its participation in the ILO until "the ILO
treats its members with equality and justice."

On May 12, a meeting in Manila of Southeast Asian labour ministers said
Myanmar had agreed to accept an ILO mission.

The Myanmar goverment had previously described ILO reports as partisan and
biased.

Yangon's junta stands accused of a catalogue of human rights abuses
including rape, torture and holding political prisoners. The United States
and the European Union enforce a range of punitive sanctions including
trade and visa bans.