Modern Asian Perspectives at Singapore American School
Burma: Modern Human Trafficking
By Aaron & Shen Wei
Background:
Burma, now named Myanmar, started going downhill when democracy fell and was replaced with an oppressive military rule in 1962 when General Ne Win lead a military uprising and overthrew the Democratic Government. This new Government dosen’t fully comply with even the minimum standards for the elmination of trafficking, and also isn’t showing any effort to do so. Even military officals are sometimes directly involed in the trafficking of forced labor. Examples would be the military forcing the citizens to build their government projects for them, such as buildings, railways, and bridges. They use and army of around 400,000 that opresses over 47 million people.
Burma is known as a source country for trafficking men, women, and children for the purpose of forced labor or sex slavery. The slaves are trafficked to Thailand, China, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Korea, etc. These people are forced to work without pay, sometimes without food, and live in terrible conditions.
To increase its own economy, Burma has been looking for cheap labor sources, mainly its very own citizens. The military demands a certain amount of workers from a village and if they refuse to comply, they are beaten, raped, and sometimes killed. These slaves don’t get paid at all, and have to supply their own food, which they also have to work for. There is no medication available on the work sites, so it means that many die from diseases or injuries.
During times of quelling rebellions, the military kidnaps local residents to act as porters, forcing them to carry all their equiment for them and to travel several miles with around 100 pounds of weight strapped to their back. They are tied up when they sleep, and are only fed the soilder’s leftovers.
However, there have been some recent efforts by the government to clean up trafficking. In the 2005 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law, it gives harsh punishments for those caught trafficking. However, Burma lacks a functioning independent judiciary, and most of the officials are corrupt. Therefore most of them still get away with it.
This issue is historically important since it is a very deep issue and still hasn’t been solved yet. It seems only possible for this issue to be solved through external help, since all attempts internally have all been crushed by the military government. An example would be during September 1988, where there was a mass protest against the government for better human rights. This was quickly put to rest by the military and an estimated 3,000 people were killed. More recently would be the military firing upon and killing a few peaceful Buddhist monks during their peaceful protest march. This just shows how ruthless the Burmese Government is. The Burmese citizens don’t deserve this kind of treatment from their oppressive government and deserve better human rights to better their lives.
The Issue:
Solutions:
How we plan to get the school more involed and to raise awareness
Plan A: Make a video interviewing various students to see what they really know about the events at Burma. At the end of the video we'll show clips of what is really going on in Burma. Video might be broadcasted around the school.
Plan B: Paint a poster on the ceiling depicting the life of an average slave in Burma.
Plan C: Make a poster showing the things the slaves in Burma have to go through everyday and place it on a bus to drive around.
MLA
- Burma's Secret War. 2 Nov 2007 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-YVdpQHdqo>.
- BURMA SLAVERY-1. 2 Nov 2007 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTOmOeWKfoY>.
- Cuff, Selina. A glimpse into the modern slave trade. 12 March 2007. 28 Oct 2007 <http://www.epigram.org.uk/view.php?id=1618>.
- Modern Day Slavery: Trafficking of Women and Children. BADA. 28 Oct 2007 <http://www.badasf.org/slavery/modernslavery.htm>.
- Sacrifice: The Story of Child Prostitutes from Burma. 2 Nov 2007 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfWY_09UYQg>.
- Opressive government in Burma. 2 Nov 2007 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2xBZi-EkZw>.
- Vivian, Steve. Human Rights: A Price we're willing to pay. 28 Oct 2007 http://www.impactpress.com/articles/febmar99/hmnrghts2399.html
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