BURMESE VILLAGERS SUCCESSFULLY RESIST FORCED LABOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L RANGOON 000357 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2016 TAGS: PHUM ELAB PGOV SMIG KCRM BM SUBJECT: BURMESE VILLAGERS SUCCESSFULLY RESIST FORCED LABOR Classified By: Econoff TLManlowe for Reason 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) Summary. Two recent incidents in Burma demonstrated the effectiveness of raising awareness about individual rights in Trafficking in Persons (TIP) cases. According to Save the Children (STC),villagers in Karen State and Shan State who had received STC training took action to save forcibly recruited Burmese citizens, including children, from military press gangs. End summary. ¶2. (C) Save the Children is one of the few international NGOs that work on TIP issues in Burma. STC Program Manager Guy Cave told econoff about two recent episodes in which Burmese citizens from villages served by STC training programs took action to save forcibly recruited victims. The first case occurred in October 2006, when the Burmese military allegedly drugged a 12-year old boy from Rangoon and abducted him to serve at a base in Karen State. The boy was forced to perform manual labor there without compensation. Cave believed the army planned to keep the boy at the base until he became older and then would forcibly enlist him into military service. One day, the boy walked out of the base gate, ostensibly to perform an errand. Outside the military perimeter he met a man from a village where STC had conducted training on trafficking and the Rights of the Child. The man brought the boy to his village, where a community-based organization cared for him before turning him over to STC, who traced his family and returned him to Rangoon. ¶3. (C) In the second case, also in late 2006, ten Burmese males, including three under 18 years of age, ran into an army patrol while crossing the border into Shan State after completing work in China. When the men could not produce identification cards, the soldiers took them back to their base and threatened to enlist them. The group tried unsuccessfully to convince the soldiers to release the under age youths. One man subsequently escaped to his home village, which had also received STC training. A group of villagers, including the Village Peace and Development Council Chairman, went to the base and demanded the release of the villagers. Initially the soldiers refused, but the villagers, using the information they received from STC on individual rights, persisted. After a couple days, the soldiers released all the detained men. In neither case did authorities take any retaliatory action against the villages. ¶4. (C) Cave noted that STC does not report such incidents publicly, as they feel that doing so would jeopardize their ability to work in rural areas. They asked that we not publicize this information. He wanted, however, to inform us that STC's work, and that of other INGOs in Burma, effectively increased the ability of individuals to stand up for their rights and better resist the clutches of forced labor. VILLAROSA