As families balance precariously on the brink
of survival, on the return of family mem
bers from a days work there is an excited air of anticipation. For many people in Burma, especially those in the western part of the country, families and individuals live from day to day, relying solely on unreliable labour projects for income. As the day labourers return home at night, for a moment no one knows which way they fall: into another meal or into acceptance of the situation, hoping that tomorrow brings a different outcome.
It is not that these families are unable or unwilling to work hard that they cannot support their families. Rather the military’s and the NaSaKa (border security forces along the Burma-Bangladesh border) systematic use of forced labour that creates this uncertainty. Individuals often find themselves being forced to work for the government, instead of working for their families. One farmer explained the situation, saying “we have little time to work for our family because our time is spent to provide services to the NaSaKa. My family suffers a lot. I cannot give them proper food, medicine and clothes.”
Model Villages:
The SPDC has a policy of resettling Buddhist citizens into model villages in North Arakan State, where there is a large Muslim population. These model villages have resulted in land being confiscated from the local population and increased demands for forced labour. People who have just lost their land are often forced to construct villages for the new settlers. In additoin to providing the labour, they jusually have to supply the building materials for the villages as well.
The SPDC very rarely, if ever, adequately compensates people for their work. Instead they lie to the villagers, saying that they will be paid, while having absolutely no intention of paying them. Other times they do not even bother to create this pretense, simply forcing people to work for them. A Rohingyan villager said “each time the Seingoung brings us to the NaSaKa sector headquarters for some work, they promise that they will pay us our wages, but after we complete the jobs, we receive nothing; no money and not even food. This is their most recent trick. In February, we, eight people from our hamlet, had to work in the NaSaKa camp and were promised that we would receive our wages in the evening. We repaired their houses, offices and fences. In the evening, we were given two pieces of banana each. That was our salary for the day.”
Being forced to work for the military or the NaSaKa is not just a one off occasion - it is a frequent event. “If you count how many days I had to work in April alone you will realize why I decided to flee to Bangladesh….In April I had to work 12 days and my son helped me with 4 nights,” one villager said. This villager was forced to work 12 days out of 30 (April has 30 days). His remaining time was spent trying to support his family.
Villages are forced to meet labour quotas. These quotas are no just filled with able body males, but also women, children, the elderly and the sick. If villagers cannot meet quotas, they are fined.
In northern Arakan State the onset of the monsoon season has meant a decrease in forced labour. This does not indicate that the SPDC has reformed or is adhering to international law. It is just a seasonal trend. In the dry season villagers as forced to produce bricks, construct roads, build “model villages” (see box) and collect items from the forest. When the season changes workers are expected to carry out agricultural duties for the authorities. However, demands for porters, camp labourers and sentries remain the same.
The demand for labour by the SPDC and its representatives the NaSaKa exacerbates the poverty that Rohingyian’s already face. When the issue of forced labour is combined with arbitrary taxation, high rice prices, late harvests and restrictions on rice transportation, people are simply forced into a terrifying position. The situation in 2005 was at crisis point, with the need for an international food donor to distribute emergency supplies to the people – efforts that were initially hampered by the authorities.
A villager from North Buthidaung sums up the situation, simply saying: “I cannot remember that we have ever experienced such bad times. The NaSaKa and the Army joined together to suck all our energy and money. How will the poor survive with so much forced labour? When will this end? Soon we won’t be able to stay in Burma. Another famine is already looming.”
All information and interviews unless otherwise stated are from “Labouring in the rain”, The Arakan Project, August 10th, 2006 and “No Rest from Forced Labour!”, The Arakan Project, May 31st, 2006.
To go to the other articles published in the August 2006 BI Newsletter click on the links below:
