Bangkok (dpa) – In late December, Myanmar’s military rulers opened a month-long election that has been the subject of widespread criticism for excluding opponents of the junta that seized power almost four years ago. According to the London-based Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC), "global fashion brands" are helping the regime to suppress dissent as part of a nexus of "military repression, collapsing labour protections, and workplace-level exploitation" put in place since the February 2021 coup, a period that has seen the land once known as Burma riven by civil war. In a report published in December shortly before voting started, the BHRC said it had counted almost 700 incidents of abuse at garment factories in the country since the military takeover. The centre listed rights infringements such as "forced and excessive overtime, unsafe working conditions, wage deductions, gender-based harassment and retaliation against union members and worker representatives." "Some factories cooperate with security forces to suppress organising and conceal violations," the BHRC said, adding that some some brands "have adjusted elements of their due diligence" or even exited the country. Others fashion brands, however, continue to source supply from the country's garment factories as if nothing has changed since before the army, which ran the country for most of the period between a 1962 coup and elections in 2010 and retook power again four years ago. Since then, according to the BHRC, the country has seen not only a "collapse of democratic institutions" but also an "erosion" of freedoms and "near-total impunity" for violations of workers’ rights. "Brands sourcing from Myanmar will be remembered for whether they used their leverage to protect workers or enabled conditions under which violations deepened," the BHRC asserted, without naming any fashion labels. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr coh
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