[RE: UA-112-2004: BURMA: Complaints against forced labour blocked and victims punished issued on 3 September 2004; UP-11-2005: BURMA: Four officials sentenced to prison for forced labour in Kawmhu Township, Yangon Division; UP-63-2005: BURMA: Local officials seek revenge against villager who obtained first successful forced labour prosecution]
Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received further information from the Yoma-3 News Service (Thailand) about the court case against a villager who obtained the first successful conviction of forced labour against government officials (UP-11-2005). According to the information received, the preliminary court hearing into the allegations that the villager, Ma Su Su Nwe, defamed the local officials has been completed. The judge has set June 13 as the date that a decision on the case will be given. (For full details of the recent case see UP-63-2005.)
During the preliminary hearing, the court heard that the local, township and divisional officials conspired to sue Ma Su Su Nwe, and met to discuss the case five times. It has also been alleged that the township-level officials tried unsuccessfully to pressure the judge into putting Ma Su Su Nwe under detention.
Meanwhile, there is an unconfirmed report that the two witnesses who appeared on the side of Ma Su Su Nwe in the courtroom have had various pressures put on them by the local authorities, including having their houses damaged or demolished on a pretext. However, no details have been available and as yet this information has not been verified.
The liaison of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Burma declined to comment on the case, which the ILO has been following closely. However, he said that everybody in Burma has the legal right to complain about cases of forced labour without getting sanctioned by the authorities as a result. In its draft conclusions on Burma at the annual ILO conference, a special committee stated on June 4 that:
“The Government should give clear assurances that no action would be taken against persons lodging complaints of forced labour, or their representatives, in order that the [ILO] Liaison Officer could fully continue to accept and channel such complaints to the competent authorities, and urgent discussions should be undertaken with a view to making available the safeguards and protection built in to the Facilitator mechanism.”
While expressing appreciation for the work of the ILO in Burma, the AHRC has on a number of occasions pointed to the difficulty of establishing a channel for complaints of forced labour in a country where no system exists to receive and manage complaints against government officials at any level. (See for instance AS-38-2004).
Please refer to the most recent previous update on this case (UP-63-2005) for a sample letter to send to the authorities. Please also note that the assistant to the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar has now changed. If writing to the Special Rapporteur, please use the following details:
Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro
Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
Attn: Ms. Audrey Ryan
Room 3-090
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: + 41 22 9179 281
Fax: + 41 22 9179 018
E-mail: aryan@ohchr.org
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
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