70 Burmese Nationals Starving on th

[tacdb@xxxxxxxxxx]

        Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB)

                        URGENT PRESS RELEASE!

           70 Burmese Nationals Starving on the work- site
                 for the next Asia Games in Bangkok.

1st September, 1997.

BANGKOK- Plans for Thailand's stadium and grounds construction for the next
Asian Games are being disrupted by a serious case of migrant worker
exploitation. Over 80 Burmese nationals are starving at the site of the
forthcoming Asia Games in Bangkok's district of Ramkhanheng. The group of
undocumented workers, originating from the war-torn areas of Mon and Karen
state in Burma, have not received wages for over six weeks and can no longer
afford to feed themselves. U Win Aung, leader of the group told that workers
have been subsisting on rice water and salt and that they hadn't been given
any reason for the non-payment of wages by their supervisor.

The National Stadium project in Ramkhanheng is a Thai government funded
project which has been contracted out to STNC Construction Company, 113/26
Onnuch Road, Sukhumvit 77 Road, Suanluang, Praweite, Bangkok 10250, tel:
(+662) 321 8102, fax: (+662) 821 8090. Workers are under the supervision of
a sub-contractor, named Pi Chankaphan, and have been working on building the
foundations for a five floor building behind the actual stadium for the last
two months. Burmese workers refused to continue work on Saturday, while
around 30 workers have already been forced to leave the work-site to find
alternative employment without receiving the wages already owned to them.

Sub-contractor, Pi Chankaphan, came to the work-site over the weekend and
gave workers 132 Baht each in attempt to placate workers and avoid further
absences from the work-site as pressure is now on to finish construction on
scheduled time. 

A large number of Cambodian, Laotian and Thai workers are in a similar
situation at the work-site. All workers were denied the chance of
registering as legal migrant workers by the sub-contractor. Often, employers
refuse to register workers because of the cost involved. The situation at
the National Stadium is a serious blemish upon Thailand's regional and
international image. One must question Thailand's sincerity in it's attempts
to resolve the problems created by the presence of so many Burmese nationals
within it's borders.

Workers told that they would not return home to Burma unless they were
forced to. U Win Aung stated that "... there is nothing to do for our
survival in Burma, it is better for us to stay in  Thailand.". He went on to
say that "...we come from an area of Burma where there are very serious
military operations being carried out.... hunger is better for us than
torture and death.". 

Action should be taken to ensure the payment and protection of workers at
the site as a matter of urgency. TACDB encourages people to visit the
work-site with donations of food.

Please contact TACDB on tel/fax: (+662) 216 4463 for further information.

******************************************************
Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TACDB),
328 Phayathai Road,
Rajthevee,
Bangkok 10400,
THAILAND.

tel/fax:  (+662) 216 4463
email:	  tacdb@xxxxxxxxxx
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