The State Peace and Develpment Concil (SPDC) of Burma has refused to respect the results of the 1990 elections.  Instead, the military regime continues to wage brutal war against its own people.  The high costs of this war have resulted in SPDC's policy of "self-reliance," which forces the army to be as self-sufficient as possible. 

With over 400,000 soldiers, the armed forces often resort to forced labor and exhortion to pay and feed their troops.  Most corrupt people in the military used forced labor to become wealthy.  Forced labor is also a counter-insurgency tool for controlling the rural population and diverse non-Burman ethnic nationalities.

As a result, the military regime in Burma, headed by the SPDC, is guilty of serious human rights and labor violations.  These violations are so severe that the International Labor Organization (ILO), an organization that works to end forced labor around the world, has urged its members to review its relations with the SPDC so as not to encouarge the use of forced labor.