Forced Labour Shows Back-Breaking Lack of Reform in Burma’s Military
By AUBREY BELFORD & SOE ZEYA TUN / REUTERS

BUTHIDAUNG, Arakan State — In the fertile river valleys near Burma’s border with Bangladesh, stateless Rohingya Muslims say there is no let-up in soldiers forcing them into hard labour, despite the government launching a campaign three years ago to end the practice.

The military, which ruled Burma for nearly half a century before handing power to a semi-civilian government in 2011, has vowed to end forced labor. President Thein Sein, a former general, promised in 2012 to eradicate what was once a military custom within three years.

But army units in the north of Burma’s restive Arakan State still routinely force minority Rohingya to porter loads, tend military-owned fields and maintain military infrastructure, according to interviews with 16 villagers in three hamlets.

Evidence of ongoing forced labor could complicate Burma’s efforts to convince the United States to drop sanctions introduced during military rule.

The northern borderlands of Arakan State are closed to foreigners, and access by UN agencies and humanitarian organizations is tightly controlled by the government. A Reuters team had to seek special permission from the state government to visit.

In the area, villagers described cases in which two local units—Light Infantry Battalion 552 and Light Infantry Battalion 352—pressed scores of villagers into work in recent months, sometimes accompanied by beatings or threats of violence.

Read More: http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/forced-labor-shows-back-breaking-lack-of-reform-in-burmas-military.html

Welcome to Asia.

Better: South East Asia.

pressed scores of villagers into work in recent months, sometimes accompanied by beatings or threats of violence.

It is hard to imagine...in the 21st century...that people are still being treated as slaves...and it is not just Burma...it is happening in many of the 3rd world countries where the military or local governments are controlled by neanderthal males...

Kudos to the organizations which have people who are brave enough to seek out the truth in these instances of inhumane forced labor...

Whatever happened to the journalist in Thailand who simply reprinted a Reuters article about Thai military involvement in human trafficking and was arrested?

Surely with all the corruption in human trafficking being exposed recently...he should be exonerated...not that he should have been arrested in the first place...