THE Secretary (1) of the State Peace and Development Council, Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, last month praised the role that government and non-government organisations, as well as United Nations agencies, played in helping Myanmar establish a law against human trafficking last year.

He was speaking on February 28 at Sedona Hotel at the opening ceremony of the two-day National Seminar on the Anti-trafficking in Persons Law.

“The challenge now is to successfully and effectively implement the law,” said Lieutenant-General Thein Sein.

The national seminar was the first step in implementing the directives identified under the law, he said.

The ceremony was also addressed by the Minister of Home Affairs, Major-General Maung Oo, who said the seminar would allow participants to establish programs and hammer out details necessary to implement the law in the near future.

He said that in the past three years 1362 people involved in 677 human trafficking cases have been arrested in Myanmar, resulting in the rescue of 3471 people, and described as “alarming” estimates that put the number of women and children being trafficked within the Mekong sub-region at 300,000.

“Because the Mekong sub-region has been designated as an area where human trafficking is rampant, the region’s six countries signed a memorandum of understanding in October 2004 to combat the problem,” Major-General Maung Oo said.

Signatories included Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan province.

The UN resident coordinator in Myanmar, Mr Charles Petrie, also addressed the seminar, describing ‘trafficking in persons’ as an abhorrent crime and a fundamental violation of human rights.

He warned of the difficulties of making the law operational on a national scale.
“We have to strive to make its effects – in particular its provisions for the protection of victims – felt far beyond this room in the often remote towns and villages where victims may find themselves,” he said.