Trocaire, the Third World development agency, and Burma Action Ireland have welcomed an International Labour Organisation's report on forced labour in Burma, which says its military rulers have breached international conventions.
The publication of the 400-page report comes as tensions have mounted recently between the military junta and democracy activists in Burma. Trocaire's head of overseas development, Mr Eamonn Meehan, said the world had now acknowledged what Trocaire had known and the Burmese regime had always denied: "people are being forced to work for the army".
"In many cases, this labour has resulted in death . . . Trocaire staff have seen this brutal practice for themselves.On a visit to Burma last year, two of our staff witnessed prisoners in chains being herded along a railway line to work."