Nepal Friday, April 06, 2007 From correspondents in Kathmandu, Nepal, 03:04 PM IST Labour u... Labour unions to form caucus to

Labour unions from all over the world have pledged to fight for the release of detained Myanmarese leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a two-day Burma Conference here.

Spearheaded by the International Trade Union Federation (ITUF), International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Global Union Federations, nearly 40 trade unions from the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America held the 4th International Trade Union Conference on Burma in Kathmandu this week.

The two-day conference, also attended by exiled Myanmarese leaders and trade unions, is asking for the release of Suu Kyi, Nobel laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy who remains under house arrest despite her party winning the election in 1990.

'The Burma Conference condemns the continuing detention of Suu Kyi and detention and abuse of over 1,000 political prisoners, many of whom have died as a result of ill treatment in detention,' the conference declaration Thursday said.

The trade unions said they would step up the campaign to persuade companies engaged in Myanmar to stop all economic and trade relations and investments until democracy is established and forced labour eradicated.

The labour campaign will especially target multinationals operating in oil, gas, mining, dams and infrastructure and ask financial institutions to terminate lending.

The Burma Conference said the military junta was practising widespread and systematic violation of human rights, committing routine rape and promoting trafficking of women and drugs.

'The Burma Conference condemns the increasing political and economic support provided to the regime by China and India,' the first draft of the declaration said.

However, after trade unionists from India said that might harden the India's government's stance, it was changed to 'the neighbouring countries' instead of China and India.

According to Indian trade union INTUC, New Delhi once actively supported the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar during the government of Rajiv Gandhi.

In 1990 the junta allowed the first multi-party election in three decades, when Suu Kyi's opposition coalition won a landslide victory, but it refused to hand over power.

This is cache, read story here