Since the Burmese military government has agreed not to take action against people who complain about forced labour practices to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the people should be taking full advantage of the good opportunity, said the official in charge of the ILO Branch Office in Rangoon today.

The official, Richard Horsey, made the comment when he was asked about the progress made in the six weeks following the agreement between the ILO and the military government.

Here is the interview with Richard Horsey. The first question we asked him was about the report this week by the Weekly Eleven Journal that the ILO had received over 50 letters of complaint:

[Begin recording] [All replies in English fading into Burmese translation] [Horsey] That sounds very strange. No, I have not seen this article and I do not know anything about it. But in the last report I released at the ILO Conference, which you have already seen, I think, I mentioned only four complaints. If I receive any more complaints I will present them at the next conference in June.

[DVB] In the same agreement, it was mentioned that the ILO Branch Office will be permitted to appoint additional staff. How does that stand now?

[Horsey] Well, as you know this was the conclusion of the Governing Body, that the ILO should assign more international staff, and, we are proceeding according to that decision.

[DVB] Another point mentioned is that you, Mr Horsey, would be allowed to travel anywhere without restrictions. Do you have any difficulty in doing so?

[Horsey] According to the agreement, I am free to travel. And, up till now, this has been fine. I have no problems travelling.

[DVB] You will probably recall that while you were meeting in Geneva, U Nyunt Maung Shein announced that two government employees had been given six month prison sentences each in connection with forced labour practices. When we enquired about the case, we found out that the two persons jailed were merely two members of the ward peace and development council and the senior official who had given the order was not included. The villagers are saying that they are not happy about the fact that the actual guilty party was not punished. What do you have to say about it?

[Horsey] Well, you know what I can say is that I cannot discuss about individual cases. I am responsible for maintaining confidentiality of individual cases. So, I cannot give any definitive answer about the case. But, what I can say at this stage is that I will be including the criticisms connected to the punishment in the new report that I will be preparing.

[DVB] If someone wants to complain to you, say either because they are dissatisfied with some sort of punishment or because they are being victims of forced labour, do they have to come to your Rangoon office in person to file the complaint or how do they go about it?

[Horsey] There are many means to filing complaints. They can get in touch with me directly or through other means. The main thing is to get the complaint to me.

[DVB] You always decline to give an answer every time we ask you what you would like to tell the victims of forced labour so that they will be brave enough to file a complaint. But, this time, the military government has already said that it will not take any action, so what is your suggestion this time?

[Horsey] Well, what I can say is that there is now an agreement since the 26th of February between ILO and the government and under this agreement, anybody who has been a victim of forced labour can lodge a complaint with us. We will investigate into any complaint that we receive. What I would like to say is that anyone who files a complaint will not face any action from the authorities regardless of whether the complaint is true or not. This will be a good time to make use of the opportunities available. [End recording]

That was an interview with Richard Horsey, official in charge of the ILO Office in Rangoon, about the developments in the six weeks following an agreement between the ILO and the military government, including the punishment of wrong officials over forced labour practices in Aunglan region.