The Burmese army and border guard forces have forcibly recruited Rohingyas, including children, to reconstruct villages burnt down in June’s violence, after a brief hiatus in the use of forced labour, according to the rights group the Arakan Project.
Since 10 August, the army has been rebuilding two model villages in Ba Gone Nar and Nyaung Chaung destroyed in the June clashes with the use of Rohingya labourers working for as little as half a kilo of rice per day.
Forced labour has been suspended temporarily this past week to coincide with the government’s investigative commission’s visit to Arakan state. The team was established in August to uncover the roots of the violence.
The ongoing state of emergency has also aggravated the problem of forced labour in areas unaffected by the violence, where troops have been boosted to guard the border with Bangladesh. “As a result, there was a substantial increase in demands for porters and guides to carry additional rations or to accompany soldiers on patrol in border areas,” warned the report.
Forced labour is a key part of the discriminatory treatment faced by the Rohingya, but nobody’s talked about it so far. Northern Arakan state is one of the areas with the highest rates of forced labour in Burma, and it only affects the Rohingya.
Displaced Rohingya are currently housed in squalid makeshift camps segregated from the main population and largely isolated from the outside world.
2012.09.15 DVB forced-labour-flourishes-in-post-conflict-arakan-state