US embassy cable - 04RANGOON676

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000676 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL, IO 
COMMERCE FOR ITA JEAN KELLY 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/26/2014 
TAGS: ELAB, PHUM, PGOV, BM, ILO, Human Rights 
SUBJECT: ILO IN BURMA: A TREASONOUS MINION? 
 
REF: RANGOON 538 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: COM Carmen Martinez for Reasons 1.4 (B,D) 
 
1. (C) Summary: ILO's man in Rangoon briefed diplomats on 
ambiguous news from Burma's Supreme Court, increased forced 
labor reports, and the GOB's inadequate responses.  All of 
these issues will be discussed in Geneva on June 5th in the 
context of the ILO's postponed timetable for a Plan of Action 
for Burma.  At this point we think it premature to support 
resuming the Plan.  End summary. 
 
Guilty, But Not as Charged 
 
2.  (C) The ILO's Liaison Officer Richard Horsey briefed the 
Rangoon diplomatic community, including the COM, on May 25th 
on a wide array of labor and human rights issues.  On the 
matter of the three individuals sentenced for, among other 
things, having in their possession public ILO documents and a 
ILO business card (reftel), Mr. Horsey indicated that the ILO 
was not at all pleased by the special two-judge Supreme Court 
panel's recent decision to uphold the conviction but reduce 
the sentences.  He said that the decision, of which he'd only 
seen an informal version, did not specifically reject the 
lower court's identification of the possession of ILO 
materials as treasonous.  He also said there was concern 
because the Panel's decision identified the Thailand-based 
Free Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB) as a treasonous 
organization and thus, by extension, all those who contacted 
the FTUB could be guilty of treason or conspiracy.  Horsey 
noted that the head of the FTUB, U Maung Maung (son of NLD 
Central Executive Committee member Nyunt Wei), had previously 
been found guilty of treason in absentia and that the court 
was citing contact of any kind with U Maung Maung as 
treasonous. 
 
3. (C) Mr. Horsey said that he and the ILO 
facilitator-designate in Burma, Mr. Leon de Reidmatten, had 
re-visited on May 25th the three convicts in Insein Prison. 
The prisoners reported that they had not been given access to 
their lawyers to request an appeal. (Note: under Burmese law 
they can appeal their case to the full Supreme Court and then 
to the head of state.)  Horsey said the ILO planned to 
contact the attorneys forthwith to pass on this request. 
 
Complaints Up, Responses Down 
 
4. (C) Turning to broader ILO operations in Burma, Mr. Horsey 
said that ILO officials could travel freely and had regular 
and cordial meetings with the Labor Minister U Tin Win.  He 
said that he was encouraged by the increasing number of 
incident reports that individuals were filing with the ILO 
office in Rangoon.  These allegations were coming in mostly 
from the Rangoon area, but also from other corners of the 
country, and were being made by activists but also by 
villagers.  The ILO had received about 40 reports since 
January 2004, with 30 coming since March (following the 
initial news of death penalty sentences for the ILO 
contacts).  Mr. Horsey said that after initial review he had 
passed 22 of these cases onto the GOB for action. 
Encouragingly, Horsey reported, the GOB had taken rapid and 
effective action on the first few cases -- in two cases 
returning child soldiers to their families and in another 
case firing a local official overseeing forced labor. 
However, even while the GOB was taking appropriate action, in 
its official replies to the ILO the GOB has thus far denied 
finding any evidence to back up the complaints. 
 
5. (C) After its initial burst of activity, the GOB has been 
less responsive on more recent cases.  Horsey said he had 
heard no response on any of the last 15 allegations forwarded 
for action.  Horsey hypothesized that this could be an honest 
oversight, due to a sore lack of investigative capacity. 
However, he admitted he had no way to know for sure. 
 
Whither the Plan of Action? 
 
6. (C) Mr. Horsey canvassed the assembled diplomats (from the 
UK, Italy, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, South Korea, 
and the United States) regarding the ILO Applications 
Committee's discussion in Geneva on June 5th of Burma and its 
postponed Plan of Action.  None actively supported a quick 
reinstatement of the Plan's timetable.  The Chief of Mission 
stressed that there were few signs of positive action by the 
GOB since the last deliberation in March and the recent 
decline in the quantity and quality of the GOB response to 
complaints was cause for caution, as the GOB would read 
implementation of the plan of action now as blessing their 
response (or lack thereof). Mr. Horsey agreed, but said the 
ILO would be encouraged if, by June 5th, the GOB publicly 
announced that the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the 
appeals of the three convicted for their ILO ties. 
Ultimately, he said, the ILO would not be satisfied unless 
the GOB released the two individuals now convicted of 
conspiracy and reduced further the sentence of the individual 
convicted of treason to one of possession of an illegal 
satellite phone. 
 
Comment: No Goodwill, No Support 
 
7. (C) Given the ILO rep's less than upbeat briefing, it 
seems premature to discuss a return to the proposed timetable 
for implementing the Plan of Action.  Though it's good news 
that people feel more comfortable to approach the ILO with 
complaints, the GOB still appears to lack commitment to 
addressing this issue.  Resolving complaints quietly is not 
the same as publicly admitting a case of forced labor and 
prosecuting the offender.  Also, as the ILO here rightly 
points out, the cases of the ILO contacts are far from 
satisfactorily resolved.  Though the courts, and thus the 
SPDC, have moved off their untenable death sentence position, 
they are still poised to criminalize contact with the primary 
representative of Burma's disbanded labor unions and leave 
unresolved the legal status of contact with the ILO.  End 
comment. 
Martinez