KALADAN PRESS NETWORK
FORCED LABOUR FOR
ROADWORKS
By our correspondent
Buthidaung, Arakan, June 04:
On May 12, the commander
of the Military Operation Command
(MOC) No.15 Brig.
General Sein Hlaing has ordered
the Village Peace and
Development Council (VPDC) chairmen and secretaries of
5 Rohingya villages of Buthidaung
township to build a
10 kilometre long connecting road
between battalion
No. 551 and the jetty of Mayu river at Buthidaung
town, told Kaladan
Press by a retired school teacher.
The road is 10 kilometre long, 36
foot wide and 2 foot
high and is to be completed
soon.
Now the villagers from the 5 villages of Nan Yah Gone,
Kwan Dine (Koin
Daung),
(Say Ra Kuni) and Pyin Shay (Praung Shay) of
Buthidaung south have been engaged
in forced labour
for the road works, he further
added.
Each of the five villages has to provide 20 people
daily and thus at least 100 labourers are working to
build the road while taking
together their own ration
and food since May 20. Besides, the
villagers have to
plant trees all along the both
sides of the road at a
distance of 2 feet, he further said.
Forced labour has become excruciating again in North
Arakan. The villagers have to work
for the Nasaka
camps, the MI (Military
Intelligence) camps, the
military camps, the model villages,
the farm work for
model villages and for the Nasaka for the products of
pepper or vegetables, besides, road
building,
infrastructures projects and
military camps
maintenance.
“For many landless Rohingyas who
rely on daily works,
one day of forced labour can mean
one day of fasting
for the whole family,” said the
teacher.
According to Human Rights Watch report, “at its annual
meeting in June 1999, the
International Labour
Organisation (ILO) banned the Burmese government from
participating in its activities or
benefiting from its
technical assistance until its
takes positive action
in response to the Commission’s
recommendations. These
included immediate cessation of the
use of forced
labour and abrogation of those
sections of the Village
Act and Towns Act under which it is legally sanction.
In May 1999, the SPDC issued an order recommending
that local authorities stop using
forced labour, but
no significant reduction in its
application have been
reported.”
Editor
Kaladan Press