The military regime in Burma has denounced a US report that says forced labour is widely used in its tourism projects and military business ventures. The report also cites accounts of children being used as human minesweepers.
A Foreign Ministry statement called the allegations in the March 13th US Labour Department report "false" and "malicious".
"Myanmar regrets that the United States Department of Labour issued a report on labour conditions in Myanmar which in no way represents the true situation," it said. "The fact is that these allegations are totally false. Any objective person who has observed the true situation in Myanmar will see that there no forced labour used at all either to support tourism or for commercial ventures of the military.
The US report quoted the Labour Secretary, Mr Alexis Herman, as saying worker abuses in Myanmar were "symptomatic of the current regime's gross disregard for human rights".
He said the international community must continue to push for democratic transition in the country. The report said forced labour "is used with impunity and apparently on a widespread basis . . . to support tourism, in military operations, and for commercial ventures of the military".
It added that ethnic minorities were subject to forced relocation, which seemed to go hand-in-hand with forced labour.
Abusive child labour was not uncommon, "and there are reports that children are drafted as soldiers and used as human mine sweepers and shields", it said.
The Burmese statement called the Myanmar army a "very well disciplined and structured institution" with strict regulations against recruitment of children as soldiers and forced labour.
The allegation that children were used as human minesweepers and shields was "absurd".
It charged that the US report was politically motivated with its release timed to coincide with a meeting of the International Labour Organisation's governing body and the UN Human Rights Commission.