Posted on 06/30/2005 10:53:13 AM PDT by LwinAungSoe
Myanmar's war veteran's group urged the country to quit the U.N. International Labor Organization, which has repeatedly criticized the ruling junta for allowing the use of forced labor, a state-run newspaper reported Thursday.
"Despite the government's sincere cooperation with the ILO, it had unjustly passed a resolution to impose sanctions against Myanmar," Lt. Col. Hla Swe, chairman of Magwe Division War Veterans Organization Supervisory committee, was quoted as saying by the Myanma Ahlin daily.
"The ILO is applying political pressure which has nothing to do with labor affairs ... therefore, Myanmar should resign from the ILO," said Hla Swe.
The ILO has long been an ardent critic of Myanmar, also known as Burma, for allowing forced labor, which it says is used especially by the military.
Articles published in the state-controlled press reflect the government line, and often are the only source of official information.
In 2000, the ILO took the unprecedented step of calling on its members to impose sanctions against Myanmar because of the military government's failure to curb forced labor.
In response, the junta allowed the Geneva-based organization to open an office in Yangon in 2002. A year later, ILO withdrew its sanctions call.
In 2004, however, ILO said unless Myanmar made more progress and took swift action the call for sanctions would be revived. The ILO recently condemned Myanmar again, indicating that sanction calls would likely be renewed.
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