U.S. Panel Mulls Burma Labor Data ,

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Subject: U.S. Panel Mulls Burma Labor Data , Will Ramos Extend a Hand of     Friendship?, 

U.S. Panel Mulls Burma Labor Data 

By Gene Kramer 
Associated Press Writer 
Friday, June 27, 1997; 10:55 p.m. EDT 


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Burma's military rulers have created a slave labor 
system comparable to World War II concentration camps, human and labor 
rights groups told a U.S. Labor Department panel Friday. 

``Other countries have used forced labor but not since the concentration 
camp system of Nazi Germany has a nation instituted such an extensive 
system,'' said Douglas Steel of the International Labor Rights Fund, a 
private advocacy group. 

But ``unlike World War II where Americans fought against a slave labor 
system,'' Steel said, ``some Americans are now profiting from Burma's 
free-market, forced labor economy.'' 

Specifically, he mentioned the Burma-Thailand Yadana gas pipeline 
project, a partnership of the two countries' government oil companies 
with two multinational companies, U.S.-based Unocal and Total S.A. of 
France. 

Civil rights lawyers have asked a federal court in Los Angeles to order 
Unocal to quit the pipeline project on grounds it depends on forced 
labor. The company has denied the allegations, saying it has monitored 
payments to workers and verified settlements of land claims by people 
displaced by the pipeline. 

Burma's military junta -- the State Law and Order Restoration Council -- 
has also disputed the forced labor charges, maintaining that voluntary 
work is party of the country's cultural tradition., 

Steel was several witnesses testifying Friday before the U.S. panel, 
which is gathering evidence as part of a U.N. International Labor 
Organization probe of allegations that Burma is violating the 1930 
Convention Against Forced Labor. 

The United States and other member governments have been asked to 
provide all available data on the issue for the ILO's ninth such formal 
inquiry since its founding 78 years ago, said Andrew J. Samet, an acting 
deputy Labor Department undersecretary. 

Bo Hla-tint of the Washington-based group claiming to be a Burmese exile 
government said unpaid forced labor in Burma is widespread and carried 
out on a national scale to build roads, railways, bridges and tourist 
facilities. 

``Whole villages are ordered to send at least one person per 
household,'' Hla-tint told the Labor Department panel. ``The practice is 
for soldiers to suddenly appear at public places and drag people onto 
military trucks ... to carry arms and ammunition and serve as 
minesweepers.... The old and the weak, slow on the move, are beaten and 
shot on the spot.'' 

Amnesty International has repeatedly documented Burma's forced use of 
civilians as porters and for other hazardous work, said T. Kumar, the 
organization's advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific. 

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gare A. Smith said ``credible 
allegations of forced labor'' in the construction of the pipeline, 
roads, railroads and hotels ``contributed to the decision'' by President 
Clinton in May to ban new U.S. investments in Burma said 

Such information also contributed to the European Union decision to join 
the United States in denying certain trade preferences to Burma, said 
Smith, who co-chaired Friday's hearing with Samet. 

The ban did not halt existing investments but after it was ordered, 
Unocal its was pulling out of m some planned Burmese oil exploration 
ventures. 
© Copyright 1997 The Associated Press

Asia Week
Week of July 4, 1997

Will Ramos Extend a Hand of Friendship?

Plans are underway in the Philippines for President Fidel Ramos to visit 
Myanmar later this year. The trip, which is still being arranged, has 
not been officially announced. But if it pushes through, it will bring 
the president of Southeast Asia's most rambunctious democracy face to 
face with the leaders of one of the region's most restrictive 
governments.

Ramos frequently travels outside the country to promote bilateral trade 
and investment, and his journeys are seldom controversial. But this 
visit is sure to cause consternation at home. The Yangon government is 
shunned by many of Ramos's Western allies, and there are plenty of 
Filipinos sympathetic to the beleaguered opposition in Myanmar. Many 
would feel that Ramos was a traitor to the cause. He helped lead the 
1986 Philippine "People Power" revolt, which ousted Ferdinand Marcos and 
partially inspired a popular uprising in Myanmar two years later. That 
revolt was crushed by the generals who went on to form the State Law and 
Order Restoration Council (SLORC). And it was SLORC who refused a visa 
last year to Ramos's 1986 colleague, former President Corazon Aquino. 
She made no effort to hide the fact that she was going to Yangon to meet 
with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Why is Ramos making the effort? His trip will definitely win points with 
the resource-rich pariah state, as well as show solidarity with the 
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which will admit Myanmar as a 
member later this year. Recently, the leaders of Vietnam, Cambodia, 
Indonesia and Thailand have made the trek to Yangon to shake hands with 
SLORC's generals. President Ramos's visit is sure to win more smiles in 
Yangon than in Manila.


"THERE WILL BE NO REAL DEMOCRACY IF WE CAN'T GURANTEE THE RIGHTS OF THE 
MINORITY ETHNIC PEOPLE.  ONLY UNDERSTANDING THEIR SUFFERING AND HELPING 
THEM TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS WILL ASSIST PREVENTING FROM THE 
DISINTEGRATION AND THE SESESSION."  "WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THEIR 
STRENGTH, WE CAN'T TOPPLE THE SLORC AND BURMA WILL NEVER BE IN PEACE."



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