BURMA: More human rights defenders face jail terms; no justice or compensation for forced labour death

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a number of sources on the ongoing trial of a number of persons who helped lodge a complaint of forced labour with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Burma after a man was killed while working for a road construction project in December 2004. Three are being tried on having submitted false information to the ILO. Meanwhile, the family of the dead man has been forced and coerced to withdraw complaints against government officials in Aunglan Township, Magwe Division, about the death of Ko Win Lwin, and has received no compensation or had criminal action commenced against the authorities who illegally ordered the forced labour to be done.

According to the information received, Ngapyin villager Ko Win Lwin was killed by an avalanche of stones while doing forced labour in central Burma on 8 December 2004. The 45-year-old science graduate was reportedly working in a stone quarry at Yathe (a.k.a.) Kyauksarit Mountain, some 20 miles south of Aunglan, when killed. The stones he was quarrying were being used to make repairs to the Rangoon-Pyi road. The medical report of Win Lwin’s death indicated that his body had eight broken bones and that his lungs had filled with sand and collapsed.

Local sources identified village council chairman U Soe Maung, 100 houses head U Myint Swe and clerks U Nyunt Than and U Nyan Sein as the ones responsible for giving the orders to do the work. U Soe Maung had sent the order in October, in violation of a 1999 regulation prohibiting forced labour in Burma, instructing villagers to work or pay 500 Burmese kyat (USD 0.40) per household per day. All households were also required to contribute 5000 kyat for the construction expenses.

In February 2005 Win Lwin’s brothers and sister lodged a complaint of forced labour with the delegation of the ILO in Rangoon, and the Ministry of Labour. The brothers, Ko Aung Win, Ko Min Lwin and Ko Kyaw Kyaw Naing, and younger sister Thein Thein indicated that they would sue the local authorities in the Aunglan Township Court. On February 23 an ILO representative took copies of all the necessary documents from Ko Aung Win. The ILO representative in Rangoon then suggested to the family that the ILO would help them to solve the case without having to resort to the court, and would take steps to prevent them from being pressured by the authorities.

In April 2005, the local authorities began taking steps to protect themselves and counterattack the family of the victim and their supporters. On April 4, the chairman of the Aunglan Township council U Myint Maung reportedly came to Ngapyin village and the following day together with the council secretary paid members of the government mass organisation the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), together with some other villagers, to say that they were only doing “volunteer” labour when Win Lwin was killed.

At about 9:30am on April 6 a high-level government delegation came to the village. It included U Chit Shein, director of the Department of Social Welfare (Central); U Khin Maung Myint, director of the Department of General Administration, deputy head of Magwe Division U Maung Maung Than and eight persons from positions of authority in the district and township. According to a person who was present, they called everyone into the village school and separated people according to whether or not they said that they had volunteered to work or not. The members of USDA and others who had been paid said that the work was voluntary and that Win Lwin had died by accident. However, his brothers Ko Min Lwin and Ko Aung Win insisted publicly that he had been forced to work, and while showing the medical report on his death said that it was not a simple accident. At 4:30pm the township-level authorities headed by U Myint Maung reportedly took Ko Min Lwin and Ko Aung Win to the premises of a nearby sugar factory and tried to pressure and threaten them without success. After that they took them back to Aunglan and continued to threaten and interrogate them at the township office. Finally, at around 9pm Ko Min Lwin signed a statement that they had wrongly reported the case to the ILO.

On April 24, two staff of the Ministry of Labour together with the township chairman came and took Ko Aung Win, Ko Min Lwin, Ko Kyaw Kyaw Naing and Thein Thein to Rangoon. They took them to the township office of the Department of Social Welfare on Thumingalar Road, Ward 12 in South Okkalapa Township, where they were forced to stay in a room under police watch until April 29. During this time, every day various authorities visited and threatened and coerced the villagers into telling the names of the people who helped them to lodge a complaint with the ILO.

The Deputy Minister for Labour U Win Sein also himself came and spoke with the group. According to them, he promised that if they cooperated then their father would be made village chairman and be given special permission to do business in the area. He also promised that the government would do development work in the village, including bringing in electricity and making a clinic and schools.

ILO INTERVENTION

In June the representative of the ILO in Burma reported on the case to the International Labour Conference (see C.App/D.6) as follows:

“According to the allegation, labour was requisitioned by the authorities in Aunglan township (Magway Division) in November and December 2004 for the construction of a local road, and one villager was killed in an accident while being forced to quarry rocks as part of this project. This allegation was made to the ILO by a close relative of the individual who was killed, with the support of an additional 15 villagers who indicated that they were also forced to contribute labour for the project…”

“[The ILO] was informed [by]… the Director-General of the Department of Labour on 26 April that false complaints of forced labour were placing a great drain on Government resources and undermined the dignity of the State, and that it was therefore necessary to ‘take measures as a deterrent against false complaints being lodged’. It was indicated that legal action would now be taken, under certain specified sections of the Penal Code, against complainants or their representatives who lodged ‘false complaints’. Preparations were under way to do so in certain recent cases…”

“As regards the allegation of forced labour for the construction of a road in Aunglan township (Magway Division), during which one villager was killed, the authorities indicated that investigations had found the allegation to be false as no forced labour had been used and the individual had been killed while willingly contributing his labour. Legal action would be taken against ‘unscrupulous third parties’ who had persuaded the family to make this false complaint. The [ILO] then received a letter from the brother of the deceased, withdrawing the complaint. [He] also received other information according to which pressure was put on the local people to deny that there had been forced labour, and that the family of the deceased was intimidated by the field observation team and signed the letter withdrawing the complaint under duress.”

ONE CASE CLOSED; ANOTHER ONE OPENED

Subsequently, the authorities reportedly notified Win Lwin’s family that they would receive no compensation for his death, despite the earlier promises of the Deputy Minister of Labour and other senior officials. The family has also reportedly continued to face harassment by local officials.

Meanwhile, in a letter dated 29 September 2005 (No. 3-22-22 Ye 3) the Magwe Division governing council gave instruction to the Thayet District council, which in turn informed the district police in a letter of October 5 (No. 2-14-6 Oo 6) to prosecute the persons responsible for the complaint for having damaged the national reputation.

On 14 October 2005 three persons who assisted Win Lwin’s family to lodge the case, namely U Thein Zan, Ko Zaw Htay and U Aung Than Htun, were summonsed to be charged with sending false information to the ILO. The summons was sent by Aunglan Township Court Judge Khin Khin Swe, under an application by Thayet District Police Commander Sein Win. Thein Zan is a Supreme Court lawyer and was elected as a member of parliament for the National League for Democracy in the nullified 1991 general election. The three were charged on October 20 under section 182 of the Penal Code for knowingly giving false information to a public servant, which carries a six-month jail term.

U Thein Zan lodged a petition in the Mandalay Supreme Court that the legal action violates Burmese law. Under section 195(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure Code, a complaint under section 182 of the Penal Code can be lodged only by the public servant concerned or superior. Therefore, in this case the complaint should have been lodged by staff of the Ministry of Labour or another agency that directly received and acted on the complaint: not the district police chief.

Notwithstanding, the petition was rejected and case was lodged in the Aunglan Township Court (Criminal Case No. 811-2005). However, the case has not yet been opened as on three occasions District Police Commander Sein Win has failed to appear in the court at the appointed date and time. On 23 January 2006, the last occasion, a new hearing date was set for February 20. U Thein Zan has applied to the court to have the case summarily dismissed as the complainant has failed to attend three times, but his application was again thrown out without explanation.

It has also been reported that the family of the dead man will appear as witnesses for the prosecution against the three persons who have been charged.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

The AHRC has also reported on a number of other cases where complainants against authorities in Burma or their supporters have subsequently been prosecuted: see for instance UP-132-2005 and UA-40-2004. In particular, the AHRC has highlighted the case of Ma Su Su Nwe, who is in jail at present for having succeeded in her complaint in 2005, and has recently produced a webpage highlighting her case: http://www.ahrchk.net/susunwe/.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the Attorney General calling for the charges against the three human rights defenders to be dropped, and for a review of the circumstances that led to the withdrawal of the original complaint by Ko Win Lwin’s family. Send copies to the Minister for Home Affairs and Prime Minister. Please also send a copy to the ILO and concerned persons in the UN system. A suggested letter follows. Please note that for the purpose of the letter, the country should be referred to by its official title of Myanmar, rather than Burma, and spellings of other names also modified.

 

 

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