US embassy cable - 04RANGOON310

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 RANGOON 000310 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR USAID, EAP/BCLTV, EAP/RSP, G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, 
PRM, IWI 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM, PHUM, KWMN, SMIG, KFRD, ASEC, PREF, ELAB, BM, Human Rights 
SUBJECT: BURMA: FOURTH ANNUAL TIP REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 07869 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY: The following report responds to the 
checklist provided in reftel requesting information on 
trafficking in persons activities in Burma from March 2003 to 
March 2004.  The report will also be forwarded by e-mail to 
EAP/BCLTV in MS Word format.  END SUMMARY. 
 
BEGIN REPORT 
 
Overview of Country's Activities: 
 
A. Burma is a country of origin for international trafficking 
of men, women, and children, for sexual and labor 
exploitation.  Internal trafficking for sexual exploitation 
and forced labor also occurs.  There are no reliable 
estimates of the magnitude of the international or internal 
trafficking.  The government does not effectively collect 
such information and, due to strict government controls over 
information flow, there are no independent assessments of the 
problem.  The government has no estimate for the number of 
people trafficked in 2003.  However, other sources generally 
estimate that there are thousands of trafficking victims each 
year, primarily destined for Thailand.  Sources for 
information on trafficking include the Government of Burma, 
government affiliated non-governmental organizations, 
international non-governmental organizations, diplomatic 
missions, and UN offices in Burma.  Women and girls are the 
primary international trafficking and internal trafficking 
victims while internal forced labor appears to include 
victims of all ages and both sexes. 
 
B.  Internationally, Burmese men, women, and children are 
trafficked primarily to Thailand for factory, fishing, and 
sex industry work, but also to China, Bangladesh, Taiwan, 
India, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Macao, and Japan. 
Internally, trafficking of women and girls occurs from 
villages throughout the country to urban centers and to other 
centers for  prostitution such as trucking crossroads, 
fishing villages, border towns, and mining camps. 
 
C.  In 2003 the United States imposed an import ban on 
Burmese products, which played a role in the closure of 
numerous garment factories.  Several NGOs expressed concerns 
that former garment workers, especially young women, may be 
at an increased risk of trafficking.  There has been no 
discernible change in the direction or extent of trafficking 
in recent years, although, although there is no effective 
monitoring of the problem. 
 
D.  An international NGO is conducting a limited survey on 
women trafficked into the sex industry and expects to make 
conclusions in 2004.  Also, in May of 2004 the UN and the GOB 
plan to create a joint trafficking in persons database. 
However, the GOB has not planned to carry out any surveys to 
document the nature and extent of trafficking in Burma.  Post 
is unaware of reports from any surveys conducted last year. 
The International Labor Organization confided that forced 
labor still occurs in ethnic areas where the military has an 
operational presence, but there is no accurate estimate of 
the number of victims per year. 
 
E.  Burma is a destination point for possibly hundreds of 
Chinese and number of East European females working as 
prostitutes in brothels and casinos in Special Regions #1, 2, 
and 4  along the China/Burma border in Shan State.  These 
women, some of whom actually believe they are in China, 
provide sexual services primarily to Chinese businessmen and 
tourists.  Post has no information whether these women have 
been trafficked, or if they came specifically seeking work in 
the sex industry. 
 
F.  Poverty is the driving force behind trafficking in 
persons in Burma.  It is often the case of voluntary economic 
migrants being targeted and exploited by "brokers" at the 
Burmese border, or upon arrival in the country of 
destination.  Girls in poor families are the most at risk. 
Also at risk are boys and members of minority ethnic groups. 
The traffickers at the village level are often women 
returning from working in Thai factories or the sex industry 
who provide a "connection" for the local girls.  Traffickers 
may promise a restaurant job or educational opportunities, 
but once over the border the victim ends up in the 
entertainment or sex industry, or in an abusive domestic job. 
 Victims are generally trafficked by the cheapest means 
available, in the back of trucks or in buses.  Because of 
tight travel controls near border areas, victims would 
typically require false documentation such as fake family 
registration certificates, or bribes to make it through 
military, immigration, and customs check-points, or through 
the many "unofficial" border crossings controlled by 
cease-fire and anti-government groups.  Several sources 
reported that once across the border the victims are often 
turned over to Thai police who use official vehicles to move 
the victims further into the Thailand. 
 
G.  During the year, international agencies and NGOs credited 
the government for demonstrating political will to combat 
trafficking and for improvement in cooperation with UN 
agencies and NGOs.  GOB efforts include a national seminar in 
May 2003 on trafficking, media awareness campaigns, and the 
arrest and prosecution of 518 traffickers and smugglers since 
July 2002.  The GOB set up a 40-person Anti-trafficking 
national police unit in March 2004, co-located with 
Australian government funded Asia Regional Cooperation to 
Prevent People Trafficking (ARCPPT).  On the issue of forced 
labor, however, the government has continued to do the 
minimal necessary to avoid the implementation of measures by 
ILO member states.   Although the numbers are difficult to 
quantify, the military continues to forcibly conscript 
soldiers, including children.  However, the government no 
longer denies the existence of the child soldier problem.  In 
two recent cases, the ILO was able to obtain the release of 
two underage soldiers.  The GOB wrote a letter to the ILO 
acknowledging the existence of the two child soldiers.  In 
January 2004, the GOB has established a national-level 
working group to address the issue of recruiting under-age 
soldiers for the Burmese army.  There have been no 
prosecutions to our knowledge of government officials linked 
to TIP or of Army personnel involved in forced labor.  The 
GOB will not identify any funding specifically allocated for 
TIP.  The government generally tasks groups to achieve policy 
initiatives without providing sufficient funding.  For 
instance, the most active government organization on 
trafficking, the Myanmar National Committee on Women's 
Affairs (MNCWA), depends wholly on donations and volunteers 
to implement its programs. 
 
H.  The Home Affairs Ministry states there is no complicity 
of GOB officials in trafficking.  However, NGOs report that 
government officials are complicit in trafficking, although 
it appears limited to local or regional officials who are 
supplementing meager salaries by taking payment for turning a 
blind eye to trafficking activities.  According to one 
report,  Village and Township-level Peace and Development 
Councils (local variant of the SPDC) earn money from 
trafficking, and also from skimming remittances from migrants 
working in Thailand.  There are some reports that the Office 
of the Chief of Military Intelligence (OCMI, the internal 
intelligence service) controls some brothels, hotels, and 
karaoke bars, and, by extension, may be involved in 
trafficking.  We do not have reliable information on the 
extent to which this is happening.  There have been no 
reports of punitive measures taken against these individuals. 
 Military officials and township officials are reported to be 
directly involved in trafficking for forced labor inside the 
country.  This practice is worst in the border areas.  There 
have been no prosecutions of government officials for either 
trafficking or forced labor. 
 
I.  The GOB set up a repatriation center on the Burma-Thai 
border, which has processed 10,427 illegal migrants returning 
from Thailand since September 2001.  The GOB also provided 
reintegration support to six trafficked girls repatriated 
from Thailand and to three trafficked girls repatriated from 
Malaysia.   However, the government's ability to address 
trafficking in persons is limited by the lack of funding 
allocated for social programs.  Burma is among the lowest 
ranked countries in the world for per capita expenditures on 
health, education, and social welfare services.  The 
government over the past 15 years has drastically cut funding 
for social services in order to fund military priorities. 
This trend continues still.  Also, because of the 
government's serious economic mismanagement, poverty and 
widespread corruption have become the norm.  Economic 
desperation is continually cited as the root cause of sex 
trafficking in the country. 
 
Prevention: 
 
A.  Yes, the government publicly acknowledges that 
trafficking in persons is a serious problem in Burma.  The 
government has also indirectly acknowledged that forced labor 
is a serious problem by allowing the presence of the ILO in 
Burma.  The government has publicly acknowledged it has a 
problem with recruiting child soldiers, and in January 2004 
announced the establishment of a ministerial-level Committee 
for the Prevention of the Recruitment of Child Soldiers to 
address the problem.  However, the efficacy of this committee 
has not yet been demonstrated. 
 
B.  The Ministry of Home Affairs is the lead agency in 
anti-trafficking actions for trafficking in persons with 
support from the Ministries of Social Welfare, Immigration, 
and Labor, the Supreme Court, and the Attorney General.  The 
Labor Ministry is the lead agency on forced labor. 
 
C.  The Ministry of Home Affairs says it educated 86,744 
people on trafficking between September 2001 and August 2003. 
 The Social Welfare Bureau's six-person Mobile Training Team 
trains State and Township-level social workers on trafficking 
prevention.  Also, the MNCWA has conducted seminars, produced 
and shown videotapes on television, and developed radio 
programs highlighting the perils of trafficking.  On forced 
labor, the government has posted in public places directives 
issued in 1999 and 2000 prohibiting the use of forced labor. 
There has been no assessment of the effectiveness of the 
trafficking awareness campaign.  Forced labor appears to be 
continuing in the ethnic areas in spite of the posting of the 
directives against it, though in the one region for which we 
do have statistics, the data shows forced labor has declined 
in two out of three townships. 
 
D.  Although the MNCWA and other social services 
organizations have programs to provide women with income 
generating skills and to encourage women to take a greater 
role in the community, these programs are dwarfed by the 
desperate conditions of most women in the country.  Given the 
government's absence of funding for these programs (they are 
largely "self-sustaining"), they reach only a small 
percentage of the women in need. 
 
E.  Due to budget constraints, the GOB does not support its 
prevention activities very well.  For example, the six-person 
Social Welfare Bureau's Mobile Training Team is limited in 
funding and is unable to spend much time out in the provinces 
conducting training.  The Bureau plans to split the team into 
two groups of three in increase its coverage this year. 
 
F.  Government ministries have an increasingly good 
relationship with UN agencies and NGOs that are concerned 
with trafficking issues.  The UN and NGO "Working Group on 
Trafficking" meets quarterly, and in January 2004 discussed 
ways with the GOB to improve collaboration on GOB/NGO roles 
in repatriation, and to include the NGOs from the start of a 
repatriation case. However, the government attempts to 
control "civil society" organizations and ensure that all 
citizens support the policies of the regime.  Local township 
organizations are extensions of the military junta and use a 
combination of a spoils system and intimidation to ensure 
support for government policies.  As a result, the citizenry 
generally attempts to minimize its contacts with these 
organizations.  On the issue of trafficking, citizens are 
encouraged to attend workshops and talks in order to show 
support for the government policies. 
 
G.  The GOB does not adequately monitor its borders, and Post 
is not aware of any monitoring of immigration or emigration 
patterns, or the analysis of such data for patterns of 
trafficking.   While the government controls numerous 
official border crossings, there are probably hundreds of 
other crossings under the control of cease-fire groups, 
anti-government groups, and smugglers.  The Ministry of Home 
Affairs told Emboff it has pointed out to the Immigration 
Ministry that overly tight exit controls on females force 
them to use illegal means to migrate and eliminates legal 
protections that a passport could give them. 
H.  Yes, there is a multi-agency task force under the 
guidance of the Ministry of Home Affairs to address 
trafficking in persons and a Convention 29 Implementation 
Committee under the Ministry of Labor to address forced 
labor.  (See Prevention - "B.")  There is a public corruption 
task force, but it is not allowed to investigate public 
officials unless directed to do so by OCMI.  In October 2003 
the GOB contacted a Rangoon-based Australian Aid organization 
(Asia Regional Cooperation to Prevent People Trafficking) to 
set up a 40-person Anti-Trafficking Police Unit under the 
Director General of the Burmese National Police Force.  The 
unit is scheduled to open in April of 2004 and will have a 
40-person office in Rangoon, 6 Task Forces, and 10 provincial 
units. 
 
I.  The MNCWA participates in regional and world conferences 
on women's issues, including trafficking.  The Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs is in the final stages of drafting an MOU 
with the Thai government on repatriation.  However, there has 
not been any regional coordination on specific interventions 
to prevent, monitor, or control sex trafficking. 
 
J.  The MNCWA developed a national plan to address 
trafficking in 2002 in coordination with the relevant 
ministries including Social Welfare, Immigration, and Home 
Affairs.  The plan was coordinated with UNIAP.  There is no 
national plan to address the issue of forced labor, though 
one was prepared in 2003 by the ILO.  That plan was shelved 
following a May 2003 attack by government thugs on the leader 
of the pro-democracy opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, and her 
convoy. 
 
K.  The Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation (MWAF) and the 
Preventive Committee for Trafficking in Person are 
responsible for developing anti-Trafficking programs within 
the GOB.   The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Brigadier 
General Thura Myint Maung, is the Chairman of the Human 
Trafficking Prevention Work Committee.  The Minister of Labor 
is the person responsible for addressing forced labor. 
 
Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers: 
 
A.  There currently is no law specifically prohibiting 
trafficking in persons.  As was the case last year, the laws 
used to prosecute human traffickers are a combination of laws 
against kidnapping and prostitution.  However, the Attorney 
General, with the help of the Ministry of Home Affairs, has 
drafted a new law specifically targeting traffickers, 
although it has not yet been promulgated. 
 
B.  Sentences for trafficking in persons have traditionally 
ranged up to 10 years with hard labor, with a recent increase 
of the maximum penalty to life in prison.  Most cases carry a 
sentence of five or more year's imprisonment.  136 cases 
received the maximum sentence between July 2002 and December 
2003.   Traffickers who have been sentenced are serving their 
terms. 
 
C.  Penalties for prostitution are up to ten years 
imprisonment, sexual assault of an adult is up to two years, 
and sexual assault of a minor is up to ten years. 
 
D.  The government states that it has prosecuted 294 cases 
against "540 brokers and traffickers" (304 male and 236 
female) since July 2002.  1,475 "victims" were identified 
(795 males 650 females).  The Ministry of Home Affairs admits 
that some of those cases involve human smugglers and not 
traffickers.  There have been no prosecutions relating to 
forced labor. 
 
E.  Human traffickers appear to be primarily free-lance 
small-scale operators using village contacts that feed into 
more established trafficking "brokers."  There is no evidence 
of travel or tourism agencies being involved in the 
trafficking.  There are multiple reports that low-level and 
regional government official are involved in trafficking (see 
Overview section answer "H").  Except for the report of 
Village and Township-level Peace and Development Councils 
earning money from trafficking, and also from skimming 
remittances from migrants working in Thailand, Post has no 
other information on the destination of trafficking profits. 
However, the new Police Task Force will have a money 
laundering unit set up to investigate this issue.  Human 
trafficking relating to forced labor is directed by the 
military and supported by township and regional military 
officials who arrange to meet the military's localized labor 
requirements. 
F.  The prosecutions of traffickers that we have reviewed 
indicate that most arrests occur as the result of "tip-offs" 
from the MNCWA to local police rather than investigations. 
While the government maintains extensive and intrusive 
controls over the population, trafficking in humans is not 
the target of these efforts. 
 
G.  The Social Welfare Bureau Mobile Training Teams, 
comprised of Deputy Director-level staff from the Attorney 
General's office, Ministry of Education, Department of Social 
Welfare, Myanmar Women Affairs Federation, Department of 
Immigration, and the Police Force have trained 300 
township-level officials in 10 states.  Also, AusAid will 
train the new Police Task Force.  UNIAP and Save the Children 
(UK) conduct workshops that touch on this aspect of 
trafficking. 
 
H.  There is some sharing of information between the Ministry 
of Home Affairs and the Thai Government on some trafficking 
issues.  However, there is not yet cooperation in 
investigating and prosecuting trafficking cases.  The Social 
Welfare Bureau told Emboff that MOFA is currently preparing 
an MOU on cooperation with Thailand (see Prevention answer 
"I").  The Ministry of Labor signed an MOU on "Cooperation in 
Employment" with the Thai Ministry of Labor in June 2003, 
part of which is aimed at suppressing trafficking to 
Thailand.  The Ministry of Labor is proposing procedures to 
implement local level cross-border cooperation called for in 
the MOU. 
 
I.  No, there have been no extradition of human traffickers 
to other countries.  Burmese law prevents the extradition of 
nationals except under exceptional circumstances. 
 
J/K.  Given the pervasive government control that exists over 
the activities of all citizens, some tolerance and/or 
collusion of low-level provincial government officials in 
human trafficking is assumed in order for the practice to 
continue on a large scale (see Overview section answer "H"). 
On forced labor, the military is the driving force behind the 
practice, and there have been no related arrests or 
prosecutions. 
 
L.  The government signed ILO convention 29 on Forced and 
Compulsory Labor in 1955.  Burma is considering becoming 
party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child (CRC) on the sale of children, child 
prostitution, and child pornography, but has not signed yet. 
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the "Protocol to 
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, 
Especially Women and Children" has been approved by the 
cabinet and is awaiting the Foreign Minister's signature. 
 
Protection and Assistance to Victims: 
 
A.  The Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation (MWAF) and the 
Social Welfare Department jointly assisted trafficking 
victims with counseling and job training at care centers 
before the women are returned to their families.  The MWAF 
states that in 2003 a total of  150 victims were counseled at 
these facilities.  HIV/AIDS screening is available, though 
there have been a few reported cases of involuntary testing. 
 
B.  No, the government does not provide funding to foreign or 
domestic NGOs for services to victims.  Foreign NGOs continue 
to provide some services and support to the government and 
local NGOs beginning for the second year.   International 
NGOs have coordinated a limited number of victim 
repatriations with the government and local NGOs and continue 
provided public awareness materials to the government. 
 
C.  There is a screening process in place to transfer victims 
detained in Thailand to an NGO based in Burma that does 
provide long-term care.  There are no reports of victims 
being arrested inside Burma. 
D.  There is a good understanding of the need to protect 
victims, especially those returning from international 
trafficking.  We have heard of no returning victims being 
arrested or jailed. 
 
E.  There has not been much focus on this aspect of human 
trafficking in public awareness campaigns to date and we know 
of no case in which the victims have filed suit against 
traffickers.  In the area of forced labor, victims do not 
have an adequate mechanism for lodging complaints or seeking 
prosecutions. 
 
F.  We do not have any information on the level of protection 
the government can or does provide witnesses in trafficking 
cases. 
 
G.  The Social Welfare Bureau's Mobile Training Teams provide 
training to government officials on the recognition and 
provision of assistance to victims of human trafficking. 
Post is unable to determine if training has been provided to 
Burmese embassy staff in other countries and we have no 
information that these staff have instructions on engaging 
with NGOs working with trafficking victims.  However, the 
Burmese embassy in Bangkok does provide consular and 
investigative assistance to trafficking victims brought to 
its attention. 
 
H.  The GOB provides medical assistance and shelter to 
trafficking victims who are identified as victims during 
repatriation from Thailand.  See "A" and "B" above; also 
"Overview - I." 
 
I.  Save the Children UK and World Vision work with 
trafficking victims in Burma. 
 
END REPORT 
 
2. (U)  The Embassy point of contact on TIP is Poloff David 
Juras, tel. 95-1-379-880, x4259, fax 95-1-256-018, e-mail 
jurasdj@state.gov.  Time spent on preparing this report: 1 
hour by an FS-MC, 2 hours by and FS-OC, 4 hours by an FS-2, 
40 hours by an FS-3, and 11 hours by an FSN-6. 
 
McMullen