A British expert investigating forced labour in Burma for the United Nations has received more than 20 death threats in a campaign of intimidation that appears to be inspired by hardline officers in the military junta.

Accounts of villagers dying through exhaustion, enduring beatings and toiling for days on military projects without pay have become an embarrassment to the regime as it faces growing international pressure.

The threats are the newest sign of a militant xenophobia among officers who recently moved into positions of power and who reject any foreign engagement with the country.

The UN has sought assurances at the highest levels for the safety of Richard Horsey, 32, the representative in Rangoon of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The regime has failed to issue such a guarantee.

Its Minister of Labour told Horsey that "he should have no concerns about his personal security except in certain remote areas", a statement that western diplomats in Rangoon found less than wholly reassuring.

The issue will now be raised at the UN in Geneva and could pave the way for fresh sanctions against the regime.

The death threats came in letters sent from all over the country by post to Horsey’s private residence in Rangoon.

"Your head will be cut off and our people will crush you and poison you," read one typical missive.

The threats continued to arrive after Horsey’s meeting with the minister. "My personal view is that this was intimidation," he said.

Horsey and his wife, who is expecting their first child this month, are at present outside Burma.

The death threats followed increasing tension between the junta and the ILO over Horsey’s work in documenting complaints by ordinary Burmese of cruelty and death through forced labour imposed by the army and local officials.

Horsey, a Burmese speaker with a PhD from University College, London, is one of the few international officials who have been able to travel to far-flung parts of the country. He has collected more than 100 allegations of abuse.

The Burmese junta has come under fire for decades for conscripting boys to the lower ranks of the military as porters and mine carriers. It is also regularly accused of forcing villagers to work on roadbuilding, logging, mining and other projects from which officers make a profit.

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