News & Articles on Burma-Wednesday 8 June, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Wednesday 8 June, 2011
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Myanmar port to displace 10,000 people
Italian-Thai Lowers Myanmar Project Cost Estimate
ITD kicks off Asian roadshow to seek partners for Dawei
EU May Consider Possibility Of Allowing Myanmar To Join Asean Peers In FTA Talks
Rising Myanmar currency adds to economic hardship
ILO strives to eliminate forced labour in Burma
Govt. Pressure Wrecks NLD Study Program
Burmese Censors Ease Conditions
Thai Developer Touts Burma Port Project
Forced labour complaints soar in Burma
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Jun 8, 2011
Myanmar port to displace 10,000 people

BANGKOK - THE Thai industrial giant behind a controversial deep-sea port project in Myanmar said on Wednesday that 10,000 people would have to leave their homes to make way for the development.

Ital-Thai Group is in charge of building and attracting investors to the Dawei Development Project, which is set to transform a sleepy strip of southern coastline with a deep-sea port and 250 sq km industrial estate.

The company confirmed the project would uproot local people, but insisted the villagers would be well catered for with new settlements.

'There is a population of only a little more than 10,000 people that have to be relocated,' said Premchai Kanasuta, president of Italian-Thai Development, the subsidiary in charge of the project.

Concerns about human rights and the environment have been raised about the scale and nature of the port plans because of a lack of regulation in Myanmar, which remains military-dominated despite a new nominally-civilian parliament.

The 10-year, US$8 billion (S$9.8 billion) project will include a steel mill, fertiliser plant, a coal-fired power station and oil refinery. -- AFP http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_677645.html
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 As of 9:00 PM
Italian-Thai Lowers Myanmar Project Cost Estimate

By PIYARAT SETTHASIRIPHAIBOON

BANGKO—Italian-Thai Development PCL President Premchai Karnasuta said Wednesday the investment cost of a planned infrastructure project in Myanmar is likely to be less than the $8 billion it had expected.

He said the firm's financial adviser, Siam Commercial Bank PCL, is working on the financing structure of the project and expects to determine the size of the loans needed for the project in the next few months.

The cost of building a deep-sea port, roads and railways in the first stage of infrastructure development at the 250-square-kilometer Dawei Special Economic Zone in southern Myanmar will cost less than the $4 billion earlier projected, Mr. Premchai told reporters.

The projected $4 billion construction costs for other infrastructure projects the firm will build in the special economic zone, including an industrial estate and a waste-water treatment system, will be reviewed later, he said.

Mr. Premchai said financial institutions from Japan, China and elsewhere have shown an interest in the projects, despite Myanmar remaining under sanctions from the international community. "They can fund the projects through Thailand," he said.

He said infrastructure construction at the special zone is likely to start early next year and finish in late 2015.

Italian-Thai expects to reduce its stake in its wholly owned Dawei Development Co., the developer of the economic zone, to 51% in a move to raise funds.

The firm will meet Japanese investors and business operators next week, followed by China and South Korea to attract partners to develop the international industrial hub.

Italian-Thai expects to hold a 10%-30% stake in each project built after the infrastructure is completed, through Daiwei Development, Mr. Premchai said.

The developer expects to build a power-generating plant in Dawei that will supply 6,000 megawatts of electric power to business operations in the area, Mr. Premchai said. The power plant is likely to need a total investment of $15 billion and the firm is seeking partners to operate the plant, he added.

PTT PCL, Electricity Generating PCL, Ratchaburi Electricity Holding PCL, state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, and power-generating firms from Japan and China have expressed an interest, Mr. Premchai said.

Italian-Thai is also in talks to sell an additional 3,600 megawatts of power to EGAT from the plant, and this project may need about $5 billion of investment, he said.

The construction of the port in Dawei would markedly cut transportation costs to Europe as ships could bypass Indonesian waters.

Italian-Thai signed a deal with the Myanmar government in 2010 to build roads linking Thailand to Dawei, a deep-sea port, a power plant, and an industrial estate. Under the agreement, Italian-Thai has the rights to a 75-year leasehold on 27,200 hectares of land.

Dawei is 300 kilometers from the Thai capital of Bangkok, and Italian-Thai plans to develop it into a trading hub on the Andaman Sea. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576373132737217912.html
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ITD kicks off Asian roadshow to seek partners for Dawei
By Somluck Srimalee
The Nation
ItalianThai Development will take a roadshow to China, Japan, South Korea and India this month in a bid to find strategic partners that will hold a 49percent stake in the concession to develop the multibilliondollar Dawei project in Burma.

The roadshow kicked off in Bangkok yesterday.

ITD currently holds a 100percent stake with registered capital of Bt500 mil?lion in Dawei Development, which has a 75year concession to develop a Dawei deepsea port, an industrial estate and a transborder corridor link on a 250squarekilometre site in Burma's Dawei district.

ITD president Premchai Karnasuta said the company is prepared to reduce its stake in Dawei Development to 51 per cent, as it will seek strategic partners over?seas for the remaining 49 per cent.

The overall Dawei project requires an investment budget of more than US$8 billion (about Bt240 billion).

ITD has appointed Siam Commercial Bank as its financial adviser and lead manager for loan syndication.

Premchai said the company is also interested in investing in both the infra?structure and industrial activity that will take place at the Dawei site, such as a power plant and cement, paper and steel plants.

"Dawei Development, which will develop the Dawei project, will hold between 10 and 30 per cent in both the infrastructure and industries in Dawei, with the rest being held as an overall majority stake by our strategic partners," he added.

The project will start construction next year, now that ITD has invested about Bt500 million to develop basic infra?structure such as roads.

The company will inject a further Bt2 billion to develop the infrastructure sys?tem.

The investment budget for this phase comes from the company's cash flow and a debenture that will be issued in the second half of this year, he said.

The company's president said the project would require about 10 years for full development of the infrastructure and the industrial estate.

The estate will eventually comprise a power plant, as well as petrochemicals, steel and other major industrial plants, with a focus on the export market.

The development period will entail costs of about $4 billion for the Dawei infrastructure, half of which will be spent on infrastructure for the projects themselves, which will be developed by ITD.

Industrial projects at the estate will receive tax privileges following the Burmese government's promulgation of the Dawei Special Economic Zone law. These include a waiver of business income tax for the first five years, followed by five years of paying half the normal rate of 30 per cent. Project owners can also sign long leases of between 30 and 75 years, Premchai said. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2011/06/09/business/ITD-kicks-off-Asian-roadshow-to-seek-partners-for--30157349.html
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June 08, 2011 21:30 PM
EU May Consider Possibility Of Allowing Myanmar To Join Asean Peers In FTA Talks

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah

SINGAPORE, June 7 (Bernama) -- The European Union (EU) may look into the possibility of allowing Myanmar to join its Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) peers to negotiate for a free trade agreement (FTA).

Head of EU Delegation and EU Ambassador to Singapore, Marc Ungeheuer, said Myanmar has not requested to have an FTA with the EU.

"But it is clear that for the moment the EU will wait for further progress in democratisation inside Myanmar.

"If Myanmar adopts the same standards on human rights and democracy like other Asean countries there would be no reason not to," he said at a media briefing on the EU-Singapore Trade and Investment 2011 here Wednesday.

However, Ungeheuer said, at the moment EU's assessment was that it was not the time and it has maintained the sanctions even if they were less strict than before.

EU had initiated efforts to form a regional pact with Asean as early as 2007, which if materialised, would have created one of the largest trading bloc in the world by bringing nearly one billion people under it.

But the efforts were halted because of the varying degree of economic development among the ten-member Asean and also because of the tumultuous political situation in member countries such as Myanmar.

However since the Union Solidarity and Development Party was sworn in as Myanmar's governing party, under the new president, Gen (R) Thein Sein, political analysts saw there had been changes in the country's political landscape where the government has given some face to the media unlike in the past.

Ungeheuer said the EU was Asean's second overall trading partner and its largest foreign investor.

-- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=592516
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Rising Myanmar currency adds to economic hardship
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published:June 8, 2011, 9:36 AM
Updated: June 8, 2011, 9:40 AM

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A strengthening of Myanmar's kyat currency is causing further hardship in the impoverished Asian country, hitting exporters and workers paid in dollars, with farmers also set to suffer.

The kyat's rise over the past three months is in part linked to the U.S. dollar's weakness, but also reflects other factors, some of which stem from the military-dominated government's attempts to pump up economic growth and create more wealth for the country's elite.

Among them: wealthy locals selling their U.S. dollar savings to snap up land in newly created special economic zones, higher foreign investment from neighboring countries, and increased sales of exports such as gems despite extensive U.S. and European sanctions.

Officially, the kyat is pegged at about six to the dollar and is not freely convertible into other currencies. But virtually all business and most currency transactions in Myanmar - also known as Burma - are conducted using a black market rate.

That rate has strengthened steadily from 860 kyats to a dollar in April to 830 in May and around 770 kyats this month. Myanmar's ruling generals generally tolerate the black market for currency exchange as the only practical way of allowing commerce to continue in a country that is among the world's poorest.

Because people recall instances of sharp inflation, as well as the cancellation of many bank notes in 1987 - an event that helped spark a failed pro-democracy uprising - it is common for Burmese to keep savings in dollars, generally illegally.

"Since the movement for the U.S. dollar of late has been down, especially against currencies of countries that produce commodities, the rise of the unofficial kyat is not that remarkable," said Sean Turnell, an expert in Myanmar economics at Australia's Macquarie University.

But he said other factors also have a role in driving the kyat higher such as increased real estate purchases by buyers from neighboring China, usually disguised as transactions by individual Burmese.

The government is also selling state assets to favored businesses, who are financing the deals by exchanging their holdings of dollars for kyat.

Sales, meanwhile, are up for export commodities such as gems, logs, beans and pulses, which could drive up the black market rate when U.S. dollar payments are exchanged into kyat. The country has earned more the $3 billion in the past six months from the sale of gems and jade.

Myanmar's extensive underground economy, particularly the drug trade, has also been known to cause swings in the black market exchange rate.

"Burma's production of narcotics is up, and payments on this do filter through into foreign currency conversions into kyats to pay the ultimate producers," Turnell said.

Myanmar is a major producer of the stimulant methamphetamine and heroin.

Yangon-based economist Khin Maung Nyo said it is impossible to pinpoint a single reason behind the kyat's appreciation.

A large increase in foreign direct investment from countries such as China and rumors the government could change the official exchange rate could be among the reasons, he said.

Exporters are among those being squeezed by a stronger kyat. Farmers are also likely to feel some pain.

"The strong currency is stifling exports. Exporters earn less and the bad business will affect other businesses, ranging from producers and transportation to restaurants," said Kyaw Myint, an exporter of beans.

Kyaw Myint said that because his income from bean exporting has been reduced by about 9 percent, he will not be able to pay a good price to the farmers for the next harvest. He is uncertain if he will continue in the export business.

Meanwhile, others hit hard by the kyat's rise are employees whose salaries are pegged to the dollar.

Some foreign embassies and foreign companies have adjusted their payments to their employees, but at a fixed rate that does not keep pace with the currency's real value.

Thin Thin, a 35-year old accountant for a foreign company, said her real income had fallen so much she has trouble eking out a living. She gets about $120 dollars a month, which was worth 102,840 kyats two months ago, but now brings only 93,600 kyats.

She said the monthly rent for the apartment she shares with a friend remains 25,000 kyats per month and food prices likewise haven't fallen, making it impossible for her to survive if it were not for extra income she gets from tutoring several young students.
http://www.buffalonews.com/business/24-hour-business-news/article447950.ece
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ILO strives to eliminate forced labour in Burma
By Zin Linn Jun 08, 2011 11:30PM UTC

Burma or Myanmar has seen a “dramatic” rise in complaints about forced labour owing to increased public awareness about the problem, a UN agency working in the country said Tuesday, according to AFP News.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) branch in Rangoon (Yangon) has received 506 complaints since the start of 2010 — more than double the number seen during the previous three years.

“This dramatic increase can be put down to extensive awareness raising activity,” said the ILO’s Myanmar liaison officer, Steve Marshall, in an email to AFP.

Of 749 complaints received since early 2007, 582 fell within the ILOs restricted mandate in Burma. Many involve child soldiers. The government allows the group to work in support of their policies to eliminate forced labour, including underage army recruitment.

Marshall said the distribution of a Burma-language brochure explaining the law was likely to be the main driver behind the rise in complaints, rather than an actual increase in the use of forced labour.

According to the Myanmar Times January issue, ILO office in Yangon has made a proposal to publish educational pamphlets in minority languages – including Shan, Kayin and Kachin – that aim to eliminate forced labour. The pamphlets would be translated from a Myanmar-language document the ILO began distributing in the middle of 2010.

An increase in complaints about forced labour since ILO began distributing the pamphlets showed the message was reaching its intended audience, Mr Marshall said.

On 25 February this year, Burma’s Nobel laureate and opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi had a meeting with an International Labour Organization (ILO) team in Rangoon led by Executive Director Guy Ryder. The meeting incorporated Guy Ryder, ILO liaison officer Steve Marshall and three other ILO representatives, in addition to Nyan Win and Hanthar Myint of the NLD.

Guy Ryder led ILO team met regarding 80 human rights activists at Traders Hotel in Rangoon on 24 February. At the said meeting, participant voiced apprehension about the recruitment of child soldiers in the country. And ILO officials explained their preparation to continue paying attention to complaints from general public. At the same time, they will work together with the regime to take out child soldiers from the armed forces.

Apart from the child soldier issue, forced portering has come to be known as one of the worst types of human rights abuse by the Burmese military. Many people have heard the continuous reports about kidnapping of civilians who were driven to the warzone to carry heavy loads of bullets and bombs. The Burmese soldiers used those porters like cattle under malnourishment and then killed as soon as they can no longer bring the burdens.

Forced labour question – including child recruitment and forced portering – is a cancerous syndrome especially made by General Ne Win’s socialist regime which took power by means of coup d’état in 1962.

Undeniably, countless reports have documented a reliable pattern of human rights abuses committed by the consecutive regimes in Burma which require to be addressed, such as the use of child soldiers, the flattening of villages and the dislocation of ethnic minorities, the use of rape as a weapon of war, extrajudicial killings, forced relocation, and forced labor.

At the 13th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council in March, UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights Situation in Burma, Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana, released his latest report and urged the United Nations “to consider the possibility to establish a commission of inquiry with a specific fact finding mandate to address the question of international crimes” in Burma.

If the current President Thein Sein government stayed away from addressing the use of child soldiers and forced labor, ILO also may become a force pushing the UN to establish a commission of inquiry which helps promoting human rights situation in the country.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/56981/ilo-strives-to-eliminate-forced-labour-in-burma/
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Govt. Pressure Wrecks NLD Study Program
By KO HTWE Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Foreign scholars withdrew from a planned study meeting at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters after pressure from the Burmese government, according to sources.

Win Htein, of the NLD, told The Irrawaddy that many scholars were very keen to come and meet the opposition party's leader Aung San Suu Kyi and train its members, but their planned visit had to be been canceled.

The group were due to lecture students at the Bayda Institute from June 6 to 25 before addressing NLD members from June 20 to 28, but now even the first session has been moved to pro-government NGO Myanmar Egress instead.

“I think Kyaw Yin Hlaing, who currently works in Hong Kong, is afraid the government will revoke his passport if he speaks to NLD members. If Kyaw Yin Hlaing came to visit the NLD he could get into trouble, but he should still take the risk to find out what the result would be,” said Win Htein.

Dr. Kyaw Yin Hlaing is director of Myanmar Egress and also assistant professor of the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong.

Myanmar Egress is controversial for being closely associated with individuals connected to the Burmese Chamber of Commerce, and Kyaw Yin Hlaing also supported last year's sham election in Burma.

Htike Zaw Oo, from Tavoy Township, Tenasserim Division, is studying at the Bayda Institute and says he feels cheated by the renowned foreign-based professors who have shunned the seat of learning.

“At first we were very happy that professors from foreign countries would be teaching us. We have been preparing for the training for nearly three months. But when the fixed date arrived they [professors] canceled these plans very easily,” said Htike Zaw Oo.

The NLD study course on “the principles of political science” was the first offered by the party for two decades and was scheduled to be taught by almost a dozen foreign scholars. Young NLD members from across Burma have already arrived in Rangoon to attended the session.

“The teachers did not arrive at the opening ceremony of the Badya Institute and it is hard for them to come to the NLD. Although they did not come to the opening of the Bayda Institute, they are still teaching at Myanmar Egress. It is like a balloon which has been pierced with a needle,” said Win Htein.

“We have been planning this tuition since March but Kyaw Yin Hlaing said on the phone that he cannot give the lecture because the government put pressure on him. The professors would be teaching at Myanmar Egress and Bayda at the same time,” said Myo Yan Naung Thein of Bayda Institute.

The Irrawaddy contacted Kyaw Yin Hlaing but he refused to comment.

Burmese scholars Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Tin Maung Maung Than and US attorney Thi Han Myo Nyun will all contribute to the training program.

They will be joined by foreign scholars Robert Taylor, Robert Gregory, Martin Painter, Mark Thompson, Federico Ferrara and Brad Williams from City University of Hong Kong; Michael Montesano from Singapore's Institute of South East Asia Study; Eric Thompson from the National University of Singapore; and N. Ganesan from the Hiroshima Peace Institute in Japan. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21454
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Burmese Censors Ease Conditions
By THE IRRAWADDY Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Burma’s Ministry of Information said on Wednesday that as of June 10 censorship regulations have conditionally changed from a “pre-censorship” to a “post-censorship” mode on five topics— sports, entertainment, technology, health and children's literature. However, publishers have been warned to follow “Three National Causes” and avoid “state instability.”

Currently, all weekly journals, monthly magazines and books in Burma have to submit their proposed drafts to the Burmese censorship board ahead of publication.

Media sources in Rangoon said the Ministry’s censorship board, officially called the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division (PSRD), told officials of private journals about the new regulation at its office in Rangoon on Wednesday afternoon.

Although the five topics mentioned will still be monitored after publication, the media is obliged to follow 12 censorship rules, which include abiding by the “Three National Causes”: non-disintegration of the Union, non-disintegration of national solidarity; and perpetuation of sovereignty.

The PSRD has also told some 500 officials of Burmese journals, writers and publishers to deposit five million kyat (over US $5,000) as a guarantee they will follow the regulations.

Any publisher deemed to break the PSRD's rules will lose their deposit and be suspended for an unspecified period or until they are able to pay the fine.

With the exceptions of sport, entertainment, health, technology and children's literature, other topics of publication have to pass the censorship board agreement before publication.

According to Washington-based Freedom House’s May 2 report, Burma is one of the 10 worst countries in the world for press freedom alongside Cuba and North Korea. http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21453
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Thai Developer Touts Burma Port Project
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN Wednesday, June 8, 2011

BANGKOK — “A gateway to Indochina and south China” and “a short-cut pioneer of global transformation”—that is how the Thai conglomerate responsible for developing the Dawei (Tavoy) port project in southern Burma described the complex in Bangkok on Wednesday.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Italian-Thai Development Public Company, which was selected to run the US $8 billion project on Nov. 2, 2010, the company's president, Premchai Karnasuta, painted an impressive picture of what it will mean for Thailand and the region.

“When completed, Dawei will save time and money, cutting four to five days off import and export calendars,” said Premchai.

As things stand, Thailand's exports are sent around Singapore via the Strait of Malacca—a narrow and congested sea lane through which 50 percent of the world's maritime trade passes—before being shipped to the West and elsewhere.

Three and a half years after the Burmese and Thai governments signed an agreement to jointly develop a port project at Tavoy in southern Burma's Tenasserim Region, Italian-Thai is billing it as a major turning point for Burma and its more economically advanced neighbors.

If completed according to current plans, the facility will measure 250 square kilometers (100 square miles) and comprise deep-water harbor facilities, an oil refinery and an industrial estate—all linked by road to Thailand's capital Bangkok, with transport infrastructure running alongside oil and gas pipelines.

“It could be the world's biggest industrial estate,” said Somchet Thinaphong, the managing director of the Dawei Development Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Italian-Thai.

Officials from Thailand's Ministry of Finance and National Economic and Social Development Board spoke of the project as a potential global fulcrum for trade, linking East and Southeast Asia to distant markets and investors, from India to the Persian Gulf and beyond.

The project's backers hope to link into Chinese rail projects underway or proposed for mainland Southeast Asia, as well as port development plans close to Vietnam's commercial capital, Ho Chi Minh City.

The Tavoy port and its oil and gas facilities could also provide a new route for energy supplies coming from the Middle East and Africa, akin to the pipeline being built to link the port of Kyaukpyu in western Burma's Arakan State with Yunnan Province in southern China.

With this in mind, Somchet said the project would have “geo-economic and geopolitical implications,” highlighting the growing importance of the Indian Ocean in world affairs.

Though the details were left unexplained, it was claimed that the new project would also result in an increase in tourism for this remote part of Burma, which features pristine white-sand beaches.

The discussion made only passing reference to the social and environmental impact of the project, which some observers fear will be enormous. Speaking to journalists and others in attendance today, the developers cited only plans for a waste-water management system as part of a proposed gated-community-style residence for workers who will move to Tavoy once the project is fully operational.

However, in its promotional literature, Dawei Development Co discussed a relocation plan for Burmese residents of the area who will be affected by the project, saying that “the relocation assessment plan will be conducted with the support of the Myanmar [Burmese] Government” and will be “developed with the local people based on a two-way communication scheme.”

Italian-Thai estimated that the project could generate 100,000 jobs, and officials today said that one of the attractions of Burma was its low-cost labor force, described as “the cheapest in Asia, even less than in Bangladesh.”

Despite being listed as the opening speaker, Burma's ambassador to Thailand, Aung Thein, did not address today's event, leaving the entire discussion to Thai representatives.

Among the issues discussed was the Dawei Special Economic Zone Law, which was promulgated by the Burmese regime on Jan. 27. The law aims to create a China-style foreign investment magnet around Tavoy, promising tax breaks for companies as well as speedy work- and trade-permit facilitation, and a promise from the Burmese government not to nationalize any industry or project established in the special economic zone.

Accountancy firm KPMG gave an overview of the legal context for investment in Burma, including a list of restrictions on foreign investment. However, no mention was made of Western sanctions on Burma, some of which prohibit investment in the country.

On the contrary, Premchai said that Burma is “beginning to open up,” adding that the Tavoy project “will help bring the country more investment.” http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=21452
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Forced labour complaints soar in Burma
By AFP
Published: 8 June 2011

Burma has seen a “dramatic” rise in complaints about forced labour owing to increased public awareness about the problem, a UN agency working in the country said Tuesday.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) branch in Rangoon has received 506 complaints since the start of 2010 – more than double the number seen during the previous three years.

“This dramatic increase can be put down to extensive awareness raising activity,” said the ILO’s Burma liaison officer, Steve Marshall, in an email to AFP.

Of 749 complaints received since early 2007, 582 fell within the ILO’s restricted mandate in Burma. Many involve child soldiers.

The government allows the group to work in support of their policies to eliminate forced labour, including underage army recruitment.

Marshall said the distribution of a Burma-language brochure explaining the law was likely to be the main driver behind the rise in complaints, rather than an actual increase in the use of forced labour.

“But similarly the number of complaints cannot be used to reflect the size of the problem,” he said. “Many people are still either unaware of their rights or are not in a position to attempt to exercise them.”

Burma’s military junta handed over power to a nominally civilian administration in March after nearly half a century of army rule.

The ILO’s agreement to work in the country, extended in February this year for another 12 months, first came into effect in Febuary 2007.

Since then, 174 people recruited underage by the military have been released to their families, the ILO said, and in response 20 officers and 110 other ranks have been disciplined, according to defence officials.

Rights activists believe there are thousands of child soldiers in the state military, while some of Burma’s ethnic armed groups have also been named by the UN for recruiting and using children in conflict.

Marshall said they had “serious difficulty” assessing allegations against non-state armed groups, but they were negotiating with the government to get access at least to groups with which there are ceasefire agreements.

He pointed out that while each army recruitment case recorded by the ILO related to one victim, for other forms of forced labour a single case could relate to hundreds of complainants.

“There is still a long way to go,” he said, adding that complaints falling outside the ILO’s mandate mainly concerned land confiscation, corruption and industrial disputes.
http://www.dvb.no/news/forced-labour-complaints-soar-in-burma/16009

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