Villagers forced to work as unpaid laborers on road repairs in Ye Township

September 24, 2008

HURFOM :

Inhabitants of the area around Toe-Tat-Ywa-Thit and Yin Ye villages, Ye Township, southern Mon State, are being forced to work as unpaid laborers on road repairs, report local sources. The forced labor began on September 17^th, on the orders of Khaw Zar Sub-township People’s Development Council (PDC) chairman U Kyaw Moe and Kya Zay Ya, officer of Infantry Battalion No. 31.Villagers report that the sudden demand for labor to fix the thirty-two kilometer long road, which connects Ye Town with Khaw Zar Sub-township and was damaged by rainfall during the rainy season, has been triggered by an upcoming visit from an important official from Moulmein, Mon State‘s capital. “My village headmen warned us that we must finish repairing the road before the V.I.P trip from Moulmein,” said a source in Yin Ye.

Each household is responsible for fixing six square meters of road. If people do not participate in the road construction work, they have to pay a 10,000 kyat fine to the Army. “At lease one person per households must come and work or give the village PDC money to hire other laborers,” said a source.

According to Daw Nu Thar, a resident of Toe-Tat-Ywa-Thit, every household as opted to work instead of pay the fine. Toe-Tat-Ywa-Thit and Yin Ye villages are home to two hundred and four hundred households, respectively. HURFOM sources estimate that ninety households from Toe-Tat-Ywa-Thit and one hundred and twenty from Yin Ye village already provided their duty.

“We have had to dig soil, carry it in baskets to the road where it is used to build the road; people must go to work. If not we have to hire someone to go on behalf of us. We are not paid for our work and times, and we have to bring our own materials and food,” Daw Nu Thar said.

Owners of bullock carts in Yin Ye have also been forced to transport workers to the work sites or to a nearby stream, from which villagers must gather stones and sand. “We have to be at the work site from nine am until five pm, working or providing transportation for villagers gathering stones and sand. It is easy to grab the sand, which is available in the stream near the village. But it takes a long time to collect stones because they’re only available at the top of the stream, which is just under two kilometers from the village,” said Nai Cho, 45, a bullock cart owner from Yin Ye.

“A person who get to work site late may be punished and forced to work another day,” said a source from Toe-Tat-Twa-Thit. Each household has to finish their section of road, which villagers report usually takes two and a half days.

The unpaid labor violates the International Labor Organization’s Convention on Forced Labor, to which Burma is a signatory. It is also having economic consequences for villagers, as it is keeping them from their fields during a crucial harvest period. “I have a lot of my own work to do during these days. I am a betel nut farmer, and this month is very important for me to produce betel nuts. Most nuts are ripe and it is the time to pick them, but I am forced to work here and I don’t think my wife can finish all the work on the plantation alone,” said Nai Nyein, 32, a resident of Yin Ye. Failure to pick the betel nuts in time means they will become over ripe, fetching a lower market price.

Nai Nyein added that, three months ago, his spouse, Ma Maw, 30, was forced to work as an unpaid laborer making repairs to the village’s entry road. Her experience, as well as the more recent demand for unpaid labor, is not an isolated incident. IB No. 31 is notorious for human rights violations, and HUFROM has documented a variety of other instances of forced labor and land confiscation.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News