Labour unions world-wide keep up th

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

                ICFTU ONLINE... 
                Labour unions world-wide keep up the pressure on
                Burma 30/1/2001 

                Brussels, January 30 2001 (ICFTU
                OnLine): Trade unions across the world
                have been requested to press their
                governments to impose a ban on
                investments in and trade with Burma,
                ahead of an important meeting of the
                International Labour Organisation, next March. 

                In a 10-page briefing on Burma sent today to its 221
                affiliated national union centres in 148 countries, the
                Brussels-based International Confederation of Free
                Trade Unions (ICFTU) mentions 30 different products in
                relation to which it found ?vast evidence of forced
                labour over the last 10 years?. The products range
                from teak wood to coconut oil, rubber, cement, coffee,
                sugar cane and others. The ICFTU also said it had
                accumulated evidence of forced labour in 17 different
                areas of industry. In addition to oil and gas production
                and textiles, where forced labour is already well
                documented, the ICFTU said it was now also
                researching in other directions, such as the
                telecommunications, automobile and pharmaceuticals
                industries.

                The ICFTU said it had asked its affiliates world-wide to
                seek detailed data from their national governments on
                three areas: 

                lists of enterprises maintaining trade relations with
                Burma (imports, exports and investments) in each
                country; 

                total value of trade with Burma, per country;

                identification of products imported from Burma, in each
                country.

                The ICFTU move comes as a European Union
                delegation is visiting the Burmese capital, Rangoon,
                where it expects to meet top military officials as well
                as the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still
                under house arrest.

                The ICFTU said it had ?extensively briefed? both the
                Belgian and Swedish diplomats taking part in the EU
                mission, before their departure, about the implications
                of a recent ILO resolution on Burma. Adopted in June
                2000 and confirmed last November, the ILO document
                calls for the organisation?s Member States to ?review
                relations? with Burma and cease any that might help
                the junta perpetuate the forced labour system.

                Quoting several statements by senior governmental
                representatives from the region, the ICFTU said ?We
                have noticed some very small and cosmetic steps by
                the military but we are still very far from seeing any
                real progress. In fact we are convinced that fear of
                the impact of the ILO Resolution is the real drive
                behind the so-called secret SPDC talks with the
                opposition and the recent release from jail of about
                100 senior opposition activists?.

                ?We welcome both the talks and the prisoners? release,
                but they should never have been detained in the first
                place?, the ICFTU General Secretary said today in
                Brussels. ?You cannot, by any stretch of the
                imagination, consider as a genuine sign of progress the
                mass arrests, then the periodic release, of political
                prisoners ahead of important international visits,
                mostly followed by their re-arrest once foreign
                delegates have departed?, he added , stressing that
                the reason for the ILO resolution is the systematic use
                of forced labour and evidence suggests the scourge is
                still very much there?.

                In its briefing for affiliates, the ICFTU made clear 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. ?All
                available evidence points to the exact opposite,? an
                ICFTU spokesperson said in Brussels. He added the
                ICFTU would propose a comprehensive union strategy
                at an international trade union conference on
                ?Solidarity with Burma?, which will be held at the end
                of February in Tokyo (Japan).

                
                Press contact: ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224
                0212 or +32 476 62 10 18.

               International Confederation of Free Trade Unions(ICFTU) 
               Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5, B1, B-1210 Brussels, Belgium. 
               For more information please contact: Luc Demaret on: 
               00 322 224 0212
               press@xxxxxxxxx