Legal slavery under Burma's dictatorship

uscampaignforburma.org

Elsewhere in Asia, policeman attempts to beat Tibetan Buddhist monk to assert Chinese rule (damncoolpictures.com). China is Burmese dictatorship's main support.

Why Being Forced into Military Labor Can Be a Death Sentence for Convicts in Burma

TIME.com

Yay Zoe was not yet midway through an 18-month sentence in Miektila prison in central Burma when he found himself among some 70 inmates assembled for transfer. He assumed he was destined for one of the government's many labor camps.

Authorities, however, felt he would be more useful to them elsewhere: he was bound and trucked to the country's eastern border, where he was forced to serve as a porter for soldiers fighting ethnic-minority forces.

A group of porters carry goods for Burmese soldiers in a village in Karen state (undated photo released by Free Burma Ranger/AP).

The backbreaking duty of carrying mortars and rice sacks all day with meager provisions of food and water was the least oppressive part of his ordeal. The 21-year-old said he was regularly beaten by soldiers and forced into veritable suicide missions.

On three occasions, he was ordered at gunpoint to spearhead patrols through a minefield by prodding the ground with a bamboo stick. "Whenever I touched a landmine, I was forced to dig it out with a knife. My hands trembled because I assumed I was about to die." More

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