On May 12, the commander of the Military Operation Command (MOC) No.15 Brig. General Sein Hlaing has ordered the Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) chairmen and secretaries of 5 Rohingya villages of Buthidaung township to build a 10 kilometre long connecting road between battalion No. 551 and the jetty of Mayu river at Buthidaung town, told Kaladan Press by a retired school teacher.
The road is 10 kilometre long, 36 foot wide and 2 foot high and is to be completed soon.

Now the villagers from the 5 villages of Nan Yah Gone, Kwan Dine (Koin Daung), San Nyin Way, Tha Yet Kin Manu (Say Ra Kuni) and Pyin Shay (Praung Shay) of Buthidaung south have been engaged in forced labour for the road works, he further added.

Each of the five villages has to provide 20 people daily and thus at least 100 labourers are working to build the road while taking together their own ration and food since May 20. Besides, the villagers have to plant trees all along the both sides of the road at a distance of 2 feet, he further said.

Forced labour has become excruciating again in North Arakan. The villagers have to work for the Nasaka camps, the MI (Military Intelligence) camps, the military camps, the model villages, the farm work for model villages and for the Nasaka for the products of
pepper or vegetables, besides, road building, infrastructures projects and military camps
maintenance.

“For many landless Rohingyas who rely on daily works, one day of forced labour can mean one day of fasting for the whole family,” said the teacher.

According to Human Rights Watch report, “at its annual meeting in June 1999, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) banned the Burmese government from
participating in its activities or benefiting from its technical assistance until its takes positive action in response to the Commission’s recommendations. These included immediate cessation of the use of forced labour and abrogation of those sections of the Village
Act and Towns Act under which it is legally sanction. In May 1999, the SPDC issued an order recommending that local authorities stop using forced labour, but no significant reduction in its application have been reported.”

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