The SPDC used thousands of civilians in the construction of 16-miles long road between Kawbein and Kyonedoe villages in Kawkareik Township, Karen State, Southern Burma.

According to the Forced Labour Convention of 1930 (No. 29), Burma’s (Myanmar) government has obligation to eliminate all forms or practices of forced labour in Burma. Despite the uses of forced labour in Burma have been reported by various human rights groups in the region, the present Burmese military regime, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been denying the use of forced for many years. However, due to recent pressure from the International Labour Organization (ILO), the regime confessed that forced labour has been existed in Burma and promised to eliminate it by coordinating with the ILO’s Liaison Officer in Rangoon.

However, Human Rights Foundation of Monland (HURFOM), a local ethnic Mon human rights group that has been monitoring human rights situation in southern Burma, found that the Myanmar military government has continued using forced labour in the Mon and Karen ethnic areas. Evidences showed that the SPDC does not take seriously to end the use of forced labor in Burma although it officially banned the practices more than two years ago.

In March and April 2003, the local authorities of Kawkareik Township, Karen State, under the instruction of the Southeast Command’s Commander, Maj. Gen. Thura Myint Aung, had forced hundreds of local Mon and Karen ethnic civilians to construct a 16- mile long road, which connects Kawbein and Kyonedoe villages. A detailed description of this specific case is as the following:

U Ko Ko Gyi, (a retired Colonel or Brigadier), the Chairman of the Kawkareik District Peace and Development Council ordered the headmen of the Kawbein, Kaw-pauk Min-ywa, Kharit, and Kaw-go Village Tract Peace and Development Councils to start building the road on March 10, 2003. The construction was stopped for a short break in the mid April, during the water festival, which celebrates the Burmese New Year. After that, on April 22, 2003, the authorities again forced people from another three village tracts, Kaw-lyan, Kanni, and Thayet-taw, to work in the road construction together with those from five village tracts previously mentioned.

The distance between Kawbein and Kyonedoe village is approximately 16 miles. Both villages are located on the bank of Gyaing River (see the map). The authorities instructed all the headmen of the village tracts, which located between the two villages, to take responsibility for building a 16 miles long embankment, with a 15 feet in width and 3 feet in height, to be used as a road connected the two villages. Building a three-feet height embankment is a common practice for road constructions in the area. Thus, the villagers had to build the embankment higher than three feet in the places where the road passed through valleys, to have the embankment leveled all the way through.

The authorities defined the route and the space for the embankment. The villagers dug soil pits along both sides of the route to obtain soil for building the embankment. After digging soil pits, the villagers had to carry the soil with their hand-made baskets and filled on the defined space of embankment. The villagers have to provide their own tools to dig and carry the soil. After filling the soil in place, they have to press and pound it to get a strong and fixed embankment.

The villagers had to bring their own food and had to work a whole day, from dawn to dusk without any wages. They were forced to work in the construction every day until their assignments were completed.

Before the water festival or Burmese New Year (from April 13 to April 17, 2003), the authorities instructed the following five village tracts to complete 4 miles of the road. Each village was assigned to work the following distance.

ท Kaw-bein village tract - 1 mile long

ท Kaw-pauk village tract - 0.5 mile long

ท Min-ywa village tract - 0.5 mile long

ท Kharit village tract - 1.4 mile (or 7400 feet) long

ท Kaw-go village tract - 0.6 mile long

During the Burmese New Year, the construction was stopped and started again after the New Year. Three out of those five villages (please give the name of these three villages) were continuously conscripted to construct the remaining part of the road, i.e., villagers from those 3 village tracts had to construct additional 4 miles.

After the authorities assigned works to village headmen for their villages, the headmen assigned the work to all households in their villages. The village headmen assigned the villagers into small groups and arranged them to work in the construction site in shifts.

According to a villager from Kaw-bein village, a group of villagers from the village were ordered to work in the construction for 3 days per shift. In three working days, each household was ordered to complete 3 feet of (with 15 feet in width and 3 feet in height) embankment.

In the mid-May, because of the heavy rain, the authorities had to cease the construction. Villagers, who were forced to construct the road without any helps of machinery, could not complete the road at the time. Only about 30% of the road was completed.

The headmen took responsibility to assign works to households in their respective villages. After the village headman assigned works to the household, the household could decide who in their family had to work in the road construction to complete their work assignments. Some households whose men were available, men were sent to work in the construction. But, men were not available or busy with other family businesses in some households. In those cases, women and children were sent to work in the construction. The following shows villages in each village tract, estimated number of households in each village, and the ethnic nationalities who had been forced to work in the road construction.

On April 22, 2003, the chairman of Kawkareik District Peace and Development Council, U Ko Ko Gyi, called a meeting with village headmen from various village tracts and instructed them to complete the road as quickly as possible. He wanted to complete the construction before the beginning of the rainy season.

During the meeting, the chairman of Kharit village, Nai Ba Zan, reported to U Ko Ko Gyi that work assignment to his village tract was overload, so that the villagers would not be able to complete the construction on time. The authorities ordered Kha-rit village tract, which has about 870 households, to construct about 1.4 mile (7400 feet). The workload ratio was much higher than that of other villages. Therefore, he complained to the authorities for an unfair work assignment and mismanagement of the authorities. U Ko Ko Gyi was angry at him and slapped him at his face four times in front of other village headmen and told him to continue the construction with respect to the order.