Increased sanctions possible as Burma snubs ILO

4 Mar 2005 (AP) - The International Labour Organisation may influence global bodies to intensify trade boycotts on Burma as its meets in Geneva to discuss the details of its curtailed study tour of the country.

The UN body will be holding a month long Governing Body meeting during March and the last agenda item will focus on a report into Burma’s labour practices, following a very High Level Team visit to Rangoon in February.

The team was embarrassingly given the cold-shoulder by Burma’s military junta and decided to cut short its study tour as a result.

According to a briefing put out by the ILO this week, “The programme of the visit as presented to the Team on its arrival in Yangoon ( Rangoon) did not include meetings that in the view of its Members would have enabled it to successfully compete (its) mandate.”

The ILO, while critical of the junta’s attitude, has ensured ties are not severed entirely with the country’s generals. The high level delegation documented a four-point plan of action the ILO believes will improve the pariah country’s much-targeted labour standards.

These include constraining the army in its use of forced labour, allowing the designated ILO officer in Burma to move freely and liase with non-government bodies and individual, a revisiting and re-commitment to earlier labour commitments which have been lagging, and the extension of an amnesty for one individual charged with high treason effectively for speaking to the ILO.

The regime has until the final week of the Geneva meeting to respond to the plan.

While the ILO itself cannot impose or increase sanctions, its views influence other major UN and UN-affiliated bodies such as the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

These bodies can formulate policies, which could severely impact on the country’s ability to attract trade and investment, which will further undermine the country’s attempts to become better engaged both regionally and globally.

The ILO report is timely in that it comes as figures on tourism to Burma show that more people are prepared to visit the country. A Burmese government report says that almost 675,000 foreigners went to the country in 2004, an increase of some 12.5 percent on 2003 figures.

For some years, pro-democracy leaders in the country, such as Burma’s last democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, have called on a complete boycott in all trade with the country.

They argue that forced daily currency conversions undertaken by tourists as part of their visa requirements, and the wide-scale involvement of the military in a range of industries, especially in hospitality, mean that tourists are helping to prop up the use of forced labour and provide much needed hard currency and legitimacy for the unpopular government.

Tourism operators claim however that it is possible to visit the country and avoid government-owned facilities. They also say that it’s important for foreigners to see the country for themselves, so as to inform others of the situation there.

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