WTO AND FORCED LABOR (in Burma): FB

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

I have two thoughts/requests arising from this article:

1) Could someone do the homework on what, if anything, can be done WITHIN the
WTO
procedures to bring more pressure for change on  the Burmese military. It might
seem
somewhat bizarre, clobbering one of the poorest countries in the world for
deriving unfair
trade advantages from forced labour. But this is the way WTO sees things. If
there 
turns out to be action that can be taken through the WTO, it would require a
government 
to bring the complaint. Persuading a government to take such action might be
difficult, and 
might offend the people who think the WTO has no right to act on any issue. If
there is nothing 
that can be done via the WTO, this  in itself would demonstate the validity of
the arguments put 
forward by  the critics of the WTO and the authors of this article.

2) The old chestnut: the fallacy that recognition by an inter-governmental
organisation is 
equivalent to legitimisation. IT IS NOT, and Kean and Bernstein have been long
enough in
the business to know better than to quote the sergeant's statement without
comment.
As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states (in Article 21) "the will
of the people shall 
be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in
periodic and 
genuine elections....". States and inter-governmental organisations recognise
states (rather 
than governments) for all kinds of political, economic or strategic reasons. 
But there is no 
way that such recognition can trump the basic source of legitimacy of
governments which 
is the will of the people.This is rather fundamental. 



At 04:43 PM 12/29/99 +0000, zar ni wrote: 
>
> This kiosk contains:
>
>         1).  1999-12-14 Letter from President to the Speaker of the House on
> Burma
>         2).  Free Burma Shop
>         3).  Support from a Bryn Mawr College Sophomore
>         4).  our weekly board member 1 & 2
>         5).   Worldview: Burma, WTO AND FORCED LABOR
>
>
> THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN
> Vol. 24, No. 12
> Dec. 22-28, 1999
>
> Worldview: Burma
> WTO AND FORCED LABOR
> by Dennis Bernstein and Leslie Kean
>
>
> At the recent debacle in Seattle, WTO director-general Michael Moore used
> strong rhetoric to condemn slave labor and assuage labor leaders concerns
> that the WTO would become a battering ram used against hard-won labor rights
> here and abroad.
>
> In a Nov. 30th speech to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
> in Seattle, Moore suggested that the International Labour Organization , the
> U.N. agency in charge of monitoring worker rights around the world, would
> play a key role in determining countries involvement in the WTO. "Who
> supports slave labour?" Moore asked. "Or prison labour? Who wants their
> children in factories rather than in school? ...None of us."
>
> According to the WTO Wed site, Moore receives "documentation" from the ILO on
> labor
> issues. "The WTO will be guided by [ILO] Ministers on the issue of trade and
> core labour
> standards," it says. Since taking office in September 1999, Moore has met
> twice with ILO
> director-general Juan Somavia.
>
> That Moore could make those statements at a WTO gathering that included the
> Burmese
> ambassador and welcomed Burma (Myanmar) as an equal partner in the WTO is
> extraordinary,  labor and Burma activists say. In an unprecedented action
> last June, the ILO virtually expelled Burma from its ranks, banning it from
> receiving aid or attending meetings until it halts the widespread use of
> forced labor. The United Nations labor organization chided the Burmese
> military government for imposing a "contemporary form of slavery" on its
> people. Activists assert that Burmas inclusion as a member in good standing
> of the WTO calls everything Moore says into question.
>
> One of those activists is Stephen Dun, a member of the Karen minority, which
> has been decimated by the military regime in Burma. He presented a statement
> at the AFL-CIO rally held in Seattle during the recent WTO meetings. 
>
> "This is the strongest action ever undertaken by the ILO in its 80-year
> history! Incredibly, Burma under the military junta is a member in good
> standing of the World Trade Organization," Dun said in his statement.
>
> "Forced labor is used to build roads, to build airport runways for tourists,
> to build military camps and facilities, and to produce crops and products for
> international trade," he said. "Let me tell you about the conditions for
> forced laborers:  Girls and women are harassed, molested and raped by
> soldiers. Men and women are chained at night like animals, so that they
> cannot run away. Those who work too slowly are beaten, and even killed."
>
> A 1998 ILO report stated that government officials and the military treat the
> civilian population as an unlimited pool of unpaid forced laborers and
> servants at their disposal and that life under the current regime is "a saga
> of untold misery and suffering, oppression and exploitation of large sections
> of the population.
>
> According to a September 1998 Report on Labor Practices in Burma by the U.S.
> Department of Labor, "forced labor has reportedly been imposed upon many
> hundreds of thousands of people in Burma since the early 1990s."
>
> Because of the extremity of these findings and the historic action by the ILO
> to expel Burma, the Burmese dictatorship has become the ultimate "poster
> child" for those working to improve labor standards in the context of free
> trade,  says Larry Dohrs, director of public education for the Free Burma
> Coalition. "How can the WTO rationalize having a member that has been kicked
> out of the ILO?" he told the Bay Guardian. 
>
> Perks for dictators 
> Along with the advantage of a huge pool of free labor, Burmas rulers have
> benefited from WTO membership perks. The WTO was the first to challenge a
> 1996 Massachusetts law that prevents the state from doing business with
> companies that deal with Burma. The law is modeled after the successful
> anti-apartheid boycott laws that were adopted by 25 states and 80 local
> governments.
>
> For the time being, the WTO was let off the hook because a U.S. federal
> district court ruled against the Burma purchasing law, and last November the
> Supreme Court decided it would rule on the case. But the trade organization
> is ready to back Burmas iron-fisted rulers if the court decides in favor of
> the people of Massachusetts. Ironically, a lawless, unelected military junta
> has the worlds most powerful trade organization attempting to override the
> laws of a democratic country.
>
> The rulers of Burma have also benefited from other services provided to them
> by the WTO. Last
> July, the WTO sponsored a two-day course titled "Internet Technology" in
> Rangoon, Burmas
> capital. "Manager Mr. Jean Guy Carrier of World Trade Organization spoke on
> the occasion,"
> reported the New Light of Myanmar, the state-controlled newspaper. In
> contrast, the few citizens of Burma who can afford a computer are denied the
> right to have one.  Those caught with an unsanctioned computer face
> imprisonment for as much as 15 years.
>
> Participating in the elite computer training course with some 30 junta
> members were officials from the Office of Strategic Studies, which is headed
> by Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, one of the juntas most powerful and feared
> members. The OSS is a military think-tank comprising high-ranking
> intelligence officers who wield tremendous authority.  Khin Nyunt, who has
> also been head of the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence for 15
> years, is responsible for much of the brutality and terror that has been
> inflicted on the Burmese people, partly through his OSS.
>
> Free trade in drugs 
> Khin Nyunt has also had success in stimulating free trade in one of his
> country's most profitable business ventures: the export of heroin and other
> drugs. On Oct. 1, he paid a visit to the rural headquarters of Wei
> Hsueh-kang, an ethnic-Chinese drug lord who is wanted for trafficking by both
> U.S. and Thai authorities.
>
> The U.S. State Department has called Wei's outfit "the world's biggest armed
> narcotics trafficking organization" and has a $2 million bounty out for his
> capture. His amphetamine factories are believed to be the key source for the
> explosive wave of Burmas newest export, which is now devastating the youth in
> neighboring Thailand. But this has not stopped Khin Nyunt from comfortably
> visiting road and dam-building projects being undertaken with drug profits in
> Wei's area.
>
> In fact, this particular free trade zone is expanding, thanks to Khin Nyunt
> and the rest of the Generals in charge. Wei has recently been allowed to
> spread his business south, infuriating Thai officials. The Bangkok Post
argued
> that the regime's "tacit approval of Wei's drug activities can only add to
> the regime's foul reputation as a real danger to the well-being of the global
> community of nations."
>
> As early as 1993, narcotics officials in Thailand had linked Khin Nyunt to Lo
> Hsing Han, who had been one of the largest heroin traffickers in the world. A
> memo from the Thai Government's Office of Narcotics Control Board names Khin
> Nyunt as key "supporter" of Lo, and says that in February 1993, Lo Hsing Han
> was granted the "privilege from Brig. Gen. Khin Nyunt to smuggle heroin from
> the Kokang group to Tachilek [on the Thai border] without interception."  Now
> Lo and his son, Steven Law, are two of the leading lights in Burmas business
> community.
>
> The drug-connection was definitely on the minds of the Burma pro-democracy
> activists in Seattle. Among their numbers was a retired army sergeant who had
> served in numerous U.S. special operations as well as several tours at the
> U.S. embassy in Burma. The sergeant, an intelligence specialist who worked
> directly with the State Department, helped carry a 20-foot, 40-pound mock
> hypodermic needle into demonstrations on the streets of Seattle.
>
> "Our message with the needle," said the career soldier who requested
> anonymity, "is that heroin is Myanmar's number one money making export. From
> a trade standpoint, heroin is definitely their thing." The Seattle police
> seized and crushed the giant syringe. 
>
> Lending legitimacy
> "It's ironic to think that peaceful demonstrators - truly peaceful - were
> gassed and shot with rubber bullets as they sat, in order to protect an
> institution that was meeting inside with the Burmese dictators treated as
> honored guests and normal members," Dohrs said.
>
> While the attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators took place on the outside,
> Burmas ambassador U Tin Win, attended President Clintons WTO luncheon on Dec.
> 1. At this event, he listened to a speech presented by Moore. 
>
> "This is the chance to help build the new world. There are so many in this
> conference who also marched, protested, went to prison, fought, suffered. The
> idealists sit in this conference...These men and women were chosen by their
> people, they must ask their Parliaments and Congresses to ratify what they
> agree."
>
> "Burma must have slipped Moores mind when he made this statement," Dohrs
> said. "Not only is democracy nonexistent in Burma, it is for all practical
> purposes illegal."   None of Burmas current rulers were chosen by their
> people, and the duly elected Parliament has been prevented from taking office
> by those whom Win represents.
>
> In a recent interview, the chief of the Myanmar (Burma) mission in
> Washington, Minister U Thaung Tun, who attended the Seattle summit with the
> ambassador, said he thinks issues such as labor and the environment have no
> place within the WTO.
>
> "Every issue deserves concern in an appropriate forum. And for labor, it is
> the ILO," he said, surprisingly referring to the United Nations body that had
> expelled Burma for its practice of massive forced labor. He believes that the
> ILO "allegations" were made for "political reasons" and says he has invited
> an ILO delegation to come and look. However, during the ILO investigation all
> requests from the ILO commission for access to the country were denied
>
> "They're running the entire country as if it was the army, said the veteran
> sergeant who carried the giant syringe. Membership in the WTO lends the
> regime legitimacy. Anything that gives the regime legitimacy is just not
> right."
>
> photo caption
> To the point: Pro-democracy activists carried a 20-foot mock hypodermic
> needle during last months WTO protests in Seattle to make the point that
> heroin is Burmas leading export. 
>
> Dennis Bernstein and Leslie Kean are coproducers of Flashpoints, a political
> analysis program broadcast on KPFA. 
>
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