Myanmar

The military regime of Burma passed a conscription law on 4 November 2010, introducing conscription for men and women in the country. Already the 2008 Constitution, approved in 2008 in a referendum that opposition parties condemned as "sham", includes a new article allowing for conscription. Article 386 of Chapter VIII of the Constitution, titled "Citizen, Fundamental Rights and Duties of the Citizens" states: "Every citizen has the duty to undergo military training in accord with the provisions of the law and to serve in the Armed Forces to defend the Union."

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Last month's protest in Burma revealing the violence and crimes of the Burmese military dictatorship has also helped identify the war profiteers that are supporting this Burmese military dictatorship. While many governments came up with strong declarations against the Burmese dictatorship many of the big companies that these government support are making high profitable business thanks to their relations with the dictatorship.

28/07/1998

Since 1988 Burma has been ruled by a military government - the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). The country has been renamed Myanmar by the SLORC, but as this name is commonly associated with the military regime, which has one of the worst human rights records in the world, we prefer to refer to the country as Burma.

1 Conscription

conscription exists

The government claims that the armed forces (Tatmadaw) consist of volunteers.

AUSTRALIA Australia Burma Council, PO box 2024, Queanbeyan NSW 2620 (tel +61 6 297 7734; email azappia@spirit.com.au).

CANADA Canadian Friends of Burma, 145 Spruce Street, Suite 206, Ottawa, Ontario KIR 6PI (tel 1 613 237 8056; fax +1 613 563 0017; email cfob@web.apc.org).

CZECH REPUBLIC Burma Project, U Zaw Win, Harusova1316, 14900Praha4

FRANCE Association France-Birmanie, Stefan and Judith Collignon, 21, Bvd Henri 1V, Paris 75004.

GERMANY Burma Project Berlin, U Khin Maung Yin, Dorothee Wenner, Siberhammer 78, 13503 Berlin.

Michael Beer

Militarism run amok. Massive unemployment, poverty wages, and huge gaps between rich and poor. Corruption and inflation out of control Failing literacy.

Human rights abuses are rampant - fake imprisonment, torture, rape, and many kinds of violence - in part because there is no law except arbitrary military decrees and actions. Each colonel operates like a war lord in his area. Forced labour is widespread. Conscription into the military is ubiquitous, but the wealthy simply buy their way out. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is out of control with at least 300,000 people infected.

Mary is a statistic. She is a Karen, one of the largest minority groups in Burma. She is also a refugee, forced to flee her home near the rebel capital of Manerplaw when it fell in late January. The 46-year old civil war in Burma has created at least 100,000 refugees along the Thai-Burma border; the recent fighting has increased that number by 10,000 people. Mary belongs in this latter number.

According to a report in the major Thai newspaper The Nation (September 24, 1991), Dr. Saisuree Chutikul of the Thai government has expressed concern about the increasing number of Burmese women lured or tricked into Thailand to work as prostitutes. At a meeting with the wife of Burma’s Public Health Minster, Dr. Saisuree said, “I asked the minister’s wife to tell her husband to think about how concerned Burmese officials can stop the flow of Burmese women coming to Thailand for prostitution.