October 28: A Myanmar court has sentenced a woman to 12 years in prison for selling two young Myanmar women into prostitution in Malaysia, state-run media said Saturday.

The court in Tachileik, opposite the Thai town of Mae Sai, sentenced Nang Aye Naw, 41, on Oct. 3 under the anti-trafficking in persons law, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

The report said the woman enticed two young women with false promises of finding a job at a restaurant in Mae Sai but instead sold them at a border town in Malaysia for prostitution.

It did not say whether the two women were rescued or when the suspect was arrested.

Many women from impoverished Myanmar are smuggled into Thailand and Malaysia, mostly for prostitution, and into China for forced marriages.

Myanmar’s military government, which Western nations have accused of failing to curb human trafficking, passed an anti-human trafficking law in September 2005 which provides a maximum penalty of death. Under the law, victims of trafficking also are to be protected and aided.

Myanmar formed the Preventive Working Committee for Trafficking in Persons in 2002, which the government says has taken action against more than 1,000 violators and rescued over 3,500 trafficked persons.

The U.S. State Department has placed Myanmar in its worst category for human trafficking, saying it has not com-plied with minimum standards for eliminating the problem. Myanmar’s government rejected the U.S. charges, saying the report failed to acknowledge the government’s efforts and lacked objectivity.