Press-Ganged Burmese Workers Flee t (r)

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/* Written  3:23 pm  Feb 19, 1994 by tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:soc.cult.burma */
/* ---------- "Press-Ganged Burmese Workers Flee t" ---------- */

Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 23:18:47 -0600
Sender: Southeast Asia Discussion List <SEASIA-L@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Press-Ganged Burmese Workers Flee toward Thailand (fwd)

         BANGKOK, Thailand (Reuter) - Burma's military government is
drafting thousands of villagers to build a railway line in the
southeast of the country, raising concern in Thailand the move
will cause a wave of refugees to flee to the border.
         Burmese guerrilla and other sources estimate at least 10,000
villagers have been conscripted to labor without pay on the
100-mile rail line from the town of Ye in Mon state to Tavoy in
southernmost Tenasserim Division.
         ``In terms of mobilizing a labour force, it is a huge amount
of people. They are very keen to get this railway built,'' said
one border source monitoring the situation in southeast Burma
who declined to be identified.
         ``We're getting reports that they have conscripted 10,000
villagers to build one section. The total number could be as
high as 30,000,'' the source said.
         The reports of forced labor have come as the international
spotlight has again fallen on Burma with the meetings earlier
this week between a U.S. congressman and the detained opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
         The visits by U.S. Representative Bill Richardson, the first
such meetings Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed since she was
detained in July 1989, led to speculation the military might be
softening its iron grip on the country it has ruled since 1962.
         Conscription of workers for the railway began at the
beginning of the dry season late last year, and it appeared the
authorities were trying to complete its construction before the
arrival of the rains in May, the sources said.
         Forced labor on public works is common in Burma. The Burmese
army has traditionally drafted villagers as porters in its
offensives against guerrilla groups.
         Refugee workers in Thailand from Burma's Mon ethnic minority
guerrilla group said the villagers are being forced to clear the
way for the rail line and then build an earthen embankment.
         The conscripts are also being ordered to cut down timber for
railroad ties and to build barracks and hospitals along the
route.
         Military supervisers provided neither food nor medicine for
the workers, and reports of beatings were common, the refugee
workers said.
         To escape the forced labor, hundreds of villagers have
already fled to the Burmese side of the Thai-Burmese border,
which is under the control of the Mon guerrilla group, one human
rights worker in Thailand said.
         The movement of Burmese refugees toward the border comes as
Thai authorities are planning to shift some 8,000 Mon people
from camps on the Thai side back across the frontier to the
Burmese side.
         ``The fear is that these new people running to Thailand will
not be allowed in,'' the human rights worker said.
         There are currently some 60,000 refugees from Burma in camps
in Thailand. The majority of them are from ethnic minorities and
have fled from government military operations in their areas.