"The team came to our town to examine us about the complaint, but all of them are Burmese government officials; there aren't any ILO members on the team," he said.
Soon after their arrival in Taungup, the team summoned all the complainants to the town's guest house for investigation into the forced labour complaint to the ILO.
Seventy people in Taungup complained to the ILO Rangoon office in January 2008 after the authorities forced residents to work as fire sentries in the town.
U Than Pe, vice-president of the NLD in Taungup Township said, "The official team examined the complainants separately one by one in a room, and urged them to sign a paper stating that they complained to the ILO after others pressured them to do so."
During the examinations, the team persuaded some complainants to sign a statement that they made their complaint to the ILO under duress from other residents.
U Than Pe said that there were two statements the individuals could sign. On one the authorities wrote, "We complained about it ourselves in accordance with our own desires," and for the other they wrote, "I complained about it under pressure from other people."
Among the 40 complainants who were present, most signed the statement that they filed the complaint according to their own desires, but 10 people signed on the statement that they had complained under duress. Of the 10 who did so, most were women and elderly men.
The complaint to the ILO was coordinated by U Than Pe, and the authority's investigation of the complaints is likely to result in action against the Taungup NLD vice-secretary.
"I think the authorities may take action against me because I was the leader in the group regarding the complaint to the ILO. But the team has not said anything to me about the case till date. I am ready to face the problem because it is correct; the authorities forced us to work in the fire sentry duty in December 2007."
