"C aterpillar Inc, Komatsu Ltd and Volvo AB - leading providers of machinery to Myanmar’s jade mines - have done little to address warnings about rampant abuses in the multibillion-dollar industry they supply, a Swedish charity said on Wednesday. Stockholm-based Swedwatch, which focuses on business activities in developing countries, said the three firms still dominate the machinery market in Hpakant, a mining township in the restive Kachin state that supplies 90% of the world’s jade. Myanmar’s poorly regulated jade mines help finance a long-running conflict between the army and armed ethnic groups, and the report said the industry contributed to land degradation, water pollution and landslides that kill hundreds of people each year. “The global mining machinery companies’ seemingly blatant lack of safeguards in response to this context is a matter of serious urgency,” Swedwatch said in a report. It said U.S. machine maker Caterpillar and Japan’s Komatsu “still have not attempted to identify the negative human rights impacts related to their products in Myanmar”. Volvo did engage human rights consultants to conduct due diligence following an initial report by the charity in 2018. The Swedish company said the probe had absolved it of any responsibility. “As a machinery provider, we do not believe we are responsible for human rights violations ... where our products are not directly responsible for the harm caused,” spokeswoman Anna Abenius told the Thomson Reuters Foundation..."