KEY POINTS:
New Zealander Steve Marshall will return to Myanmar next week on an international mission aimed at eliminating the military regime's use of forced labour.
Mr Marshall, 58, the former director-general of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, has been in Yangon as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) liaison officer
for Myanmar since July.
He escaped this week's military crackdown on mass monk-led protests because he is on a brief visit to ILO headquarters in Geneva, but he and his wife are due to return to Myanmar next week.
At least nine people, including a Japanese photographer, were reported to have been killed in the regime's crackdown this week.
"Obviously the organisation will make a judgment call about whether we should go back," Mr Marshall said. "At the present time we'd not have any difficulty going back."
After six years in charge of the ILO's governance structure in Geneva, Mr Marshall said he volunteered for the three-year Myanmar job after the military regime's landmark agreement in February to allow its citizens to make complaints about forced labour to the ILO, and to give the ILO liaison officer full freedom of movement to investigate complaints.
"It's a very interesting challenge. I thought it was worthwhile," he said.
He has received 52 complaints so far, mainly from rural areas where the regime has used forced labour for years to build roads and for various military roles, including press-ganging children into the Army.
"We've had complaints about road repair and construction activities where large numbers of villagers are required to undertake activities," he said.
"We've had complaints in regard to villagers required to undertake sentry duty in conflict zones, and a number of complaints regarding children forced into the military.
"The ILO is then in a position to carry out an investigation towards changing the situation for the persons concerned, such as the release of the child or the stopping of the work, and towards ensuring that appropriate justice is put into place for the prosecution of the protagonist."
He said the road work was "heavy labour".
"It varies between the requirement to simply move large volumes of earth to reinforce a raised road against the rainy season, which can include digging ponds and embankments, to literally carriage of stones and rocks to fill potholes."
Meanwhile, a wave of international protests against the regime's crackdown on dissidents will reach Auckland this weekend with a union-led rally in Aotea Square at 2pm today and a silent inter-faith march down Queen St at 5pm tomorrow.
Buddhist Council spokeswoman Navachitta said the two groups were supporting each other, but tomorrow's march would be "spiritual" rather than political, culminating in a candle-lit vigil opposite the Britomart railway station.
"We just want people in Burma to know that we are supporting them," she said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday upgraded its travel advisory for Myanmar to "high risk" for the whole country, advising against all tourist and non-essential travel there.
A ministry spokeswoman said 15 New Zealanders had registered their presence in Myanmar, with the ministry and there were believed to be about 25 New Zealanders there in total.
New Zealand's biggest exporter to Myanmar, Fonterra, said it did not have any New Zealanders in the country.
The manager of the Yangon office of the engineering consultancy Beca, a Myanmar citizen who declined to be named, said there were no New Zealanders in the office.
She said many offices were closed because of the violence but the Beca office remained open.
"We are afraid in the morning when we come here," she said. "The buses are still running, so if we take the bus the travel time may be longer than the normal, but we can still use the bus. Our office area is safe."
