By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 20 -- Government officials are involved and complicit in human trafficking, according to the US State Department, in countries like Myanmar (Burma) and Sri Lanka. Secretary of State John Kerry, releasing the US Trafficking in Persons report on June 20, said it is a reminder “of what happens in many dark places, in need of light.”
Inner City Press on June 19 asked Ambassador Luis CdeBaca of the US Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons about both countries.
CdeBaca noted that Sri Lanka did not make a single conviction in 2013 for human trafficking. He began by praising “new era Burma” with a story of Aung San Suu Ki directing him to her jailer who cared about the issue. Inner City Press asked about the Rohingya, the Muslim group whose name the UN dares not say in public, and CdeBaca quickly directed Inner City Press to the report on Thailand:
“There continued to be reports that corrupt Thai civilian and military officials profited from the smuggling of Rohingya asylum seekers from Burma and Bangladesh (who transit through Thailand in order to reach Malaysia or Indonesia) and were complicit in their sale into forced labor on fishing vessels. Thai navy and marine officials allegedly diverted to Thailand boats carrying Rohingya asylum seekers en route to Malaysia and facilitated the transfer of some migrants to smugglers and brokers who sold some Rohingya into forced labor on fishing vessels.”
Will Thailand try to sue the US State Department? Here's from the Department's report on Sri Lanka:
“The Sri Lankan government made very limited law enforcement efforts to address human trafficking. Sri Lanka prohibits all forms of both sex and labor trafficking through Article 360(c) of its penal code, although the law also covers non-trafficking offenses, such as selling children. The law prescribes punishments of up to 20 years’ imprisonment. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious offenses, such as rape. The government investigated 20 new cases of trafficking in 2013, compared to 44 in 2012. Authorities prosecuted one case under Article 360(c), an increase from zero cases in 2012 and 2011, though it was a case of baby-selling. Authorities also prosecuted ten potential sex trafficking cases under Sri Lanka’s procurement statute, which prescribes lesser penalties than Article 360(c). As in 2012 and 2011, Sri Lankan courts did not convict any traffickers under Article 360(c) in 2013, though one court convicted three defendants under Article 360(c) for baby-selling. Authorities also convicted 12 traffickers under the procurement statute; all but one of them received a suspended sentence. The government’s reliance on procurement charges, and the absence of prosecutions under the trafficking statute, resulted from an inability or unwillingness on the part of police to thoroughly investigate potential human trafficking cases for elements of force, fraud, or coercion.”
That's by no means the only crimes, and war crime, the Sri Lankan government is unwilling to investigate. Watch this site.
