Gems - mining and trade
Websites/Multiple Documents
Date of entry/update:
2004-01-29
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Gems, Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
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Individual Documents
Description:
"Dissolving Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association
Reference:(1) National Unity Government, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. Announcement 7/2021, dated 23/08/2021
(2) National Unity Government, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. Announcement 2/2021, dated 29/06/2021
(3) Unity Government, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. Announcement 1/2021, dated 27/04/2021
(4) Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry. Announcement 4/2021, dated 22/03/2021
1.In light of the imperative duty of business organisations to prioritise the public interest, and in consideration of their established affiliations and actions in support of the terrorist military council, which thereby aim to lend said council legitimacy and derive revenue and profits to their benefit, and further noting their consistent failure to comply with the warnings issued by the National Unity Government in above announcements; it is hereby decreed that the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association, along with its subsidiary entities, be and is hereby dissolved.
2. Effective from the date of promulgation of this order, the withdrawal or expenditure of any assets and funds associated with the aforementioned association and its subsidiary entities is strictly prohibited.
3. This order shall not infringe upon the proprietary rights of individual entrepreneurs, nor shall it impede their business activities, provided such undertakings remain detached from any affiliations or connections to the terrorist military council.
4.Any individual entrepreneur or employee found to continue their involvement in activities related to the now-dissolved entities, or who offers cooperation, disperses assets and funds, or acts under the guise of said entities, will be construed as acting in support of the terrorist military council, and so be liable to prosecution under existing laws and regulations, as stipulated in Cabinet Meeting No. 14/2013 of the National Unity Government and the approval of the Office of the President..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation - NUG
Date of publication:
2023-09-17
Date of entry/update:
2023-09-17
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Individual Documents
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"Dissolving Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association Notification (2/2023)..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation - NUG
Date of publication:
2023-09-17
Date of entry/update:
2023-09-17
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Individual Documents
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304.95 KB
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"John Lewis Partnership, a highly regarded department store chain selling a wide range of products, has informed Burma Campaign UK that it will stop sourcing gems from Burma.
Burma Campaign UK had written to John Lewis and around 40 other retailers asking them to ensure that if they sell gems from Burma, they make sure the gems they sell have not helped fund the Burmese military.
In an email received on 25th July 2023, John Lewis stated: “We remain extremely concerned to learn of developments around the conflicts that have taken place, and that continues to take place in recent years in Burma/Myanmar…Our suppliers source a very small proportion of gems from Burma/Myanmar but we are in the process of urgently seeking alternative sources of supply.”
The decision by John Lewis follows TJC, one of the biggest TV shopping channels and online jewellery retailers in the UK, telling Burma Campaign UK it was withdrawing Burmese gems from sale.
Following the attempted military coup, which began in February 2021, the Burmese military now dominates Burma’s gems industry, which is potentially worth $2bn per year. Through its own private companies, control of the state-owned enterprises and government ministries, control of trade routes into areas not under its control, legal and illegal trade, and the business interests of military family members, the Burmese military extracts revenue from the gems industry in numerous ways.
Burma Campaign UK is not calling for a blanket ban on Burmese gems. We are calling on companies to make sure the gems they sell haven’t been sourced in a way that provides money to the military and helps pay for weapons and the human rights violations committed by the Burmese military.
“John Lewis have done the right thing by deciding to stop sourcing from Burma,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “Retailers must ensure that the gems they sell haven’t helped pay for the bombs and the bullets the Burmese military are using against the people of Burma.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication:
2023-07-26
Date of entry/update:
2023-07-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Business and the Military, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory
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Description:
"Burma Campaign UK today welcomed a decision by TJC to withdraw Burmese rubies from sale.
TJC is one of the biggest TV shopping channels and online jewellery retailers in the UK.
In a letter to Burma Campaign UK, TJC stated that following the military coup in February 2021 it had an official policy not to source gems from Burma, and the Burmese rubies it had been selling on its website were listed in error. After receiving correspondence from Burma Campaign UK, the Burmese rubies had been withdrawn from sale.
TJC stated: “First and foremost, I want to assure you that we share your concerns and ethical values regarding the situation in Myanmar. Following the military coup in 2021, we made a conscientious decision to withdraw all Burmese jewellery items from our inventory, as we understood the gravity of the situation and the importance of taking a stand against human rights violations.
Unfortunately, due to an unintended oversight, some Burmese jewellery items were mistakenly listed for sale on our platform. As soon as we became aware of this error, we took immediate action to rectify the situation. The listings were promptly removed, and we have taken steps to ensure that such an oversight does not occur again in the future.”
Burma Campaign UK has written to 40 of the biggest and highest profile jewellery retailers in the UK asking them to demonstrate that the gems they sell are not sourced from Burma/Myanmar in ways which help fund the Burmese military.
Following the attempted military coup, which began in February 2021, the Burmese military now dominates Burma’s gems industry, which is potentially worth $2bn per year. Through its own private companies, control of the state-owned enterprises and government ministries, control of trade routes into areas not under its control, legal and illegal trade, and the business interests of military family members, the Burmese military extracts revenue from the gems industry in numerous ways.
This revenue can be used by the Burmese military to buy arms and equipment and so funds the human rights violations they commit.
“It is impressive that TJC had proactively decided not to source gems from Burma following the coup,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “TJC deserve praise for taking an ethical stance on this issue. We hope that other British jewellery retailers will do the same.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication:
2023-06-07
Date of entry/update:
2023-06-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Business and the Military, Gems - mining and trade
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"Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG) says an entrepreneur has bought the rights to a gem mine in Mogok Township, Mandalay Region, for US$4 million to fund the revolution.
The NUG invited domestic and foreign businesses last month to invest in 45 gem mining rights in Mogok.
The investor will be granted the mining rights when the dictatorship is ousted, the civilian government said.
The mines will be operated as public-private partnerships with 51 percent held by the government.
The NUG’s Ministry of Planning, Finance and Investment announced on Monday: “We can confirm an overwhelming number of inquiries in the remaining 44 exclusive mining rights by email and through official agents.”
Planning, finance and investment minister U Tin Tun Naing said the Mogok mining rights project aimed to bring justice after gem mining has been monopolized by an elite for decades.
“Those businesses only served the interests of military dictators, so we are fixing this to serve the interests of the people and to ensure the country and its citizens get what they deserve,” said the minister.
The NUG’s planning and finance ministry says more than $100 million has been raised to fund the revolution against the regime.
The funds were raised by selling treasury bonds, auctioning off military-linked properties, including two mansions belonging to junta boss Min Aung Hlaing, and selling yet-to-be-built apartments on military-linked land. The NUG said buyers will be handed keys to their properties once the junta is toppled. The NUG says it has also collected 3 billion kyats in taxes in the areas it controls..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2023-02-21
Date of entry/update:
2023-02-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Gems - mining and trade
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"The Myanmar military regime’s recent order halting all jade mining in Kachin State was issued with the aim of putting pressure on the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), according to Colonel Naw Bu, the ethnic armed group’s information officer.
Myanma Gems Enterprise, a state-owned company under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, announced in the March 31 issues of the regime’s newspapers that jade mining in Lone Khin, Hpakant, Maw Lu and Maw Han will no longer be allowed so that, it said, the country’s precious resources can be conserved for succeeding generations, and the environment and the safety of jade miners can be protected.
The KIA is still considering how to respond to the jade mining ban in Kachin. In the meantime, it will wait and see what the regime does to companies that fail to comply with the order.
“We will wait and see. Many people from across Myanmar make a living in Hpakant. So, their order will only hurt the people, and we will see if miners follow their instruction. I think the ban will further aggravate the problem,” Col. Naw Bu said, referring to the adverse consequences on the hundreds of thousands of people working there, and the many more engaged in the jade industry.
A jade miner in Kachin State said most of the jade mining companies in Kachin State pay tax to the KIA.
“Most of the jade mines here are under the control of the KIA. Even the military-linked companies have to pay tax to the armed group. So, [the regime] does not want others to benefit from [mining] while it can’t. It assumes that the profits from jade mines will go to the resistance movement and is therefore trying to disrupt the business,” he said.
Jade is the main source of income for the KIA, which is fighting for greater autonomy in Kachin State. The trade is also responsible for decades-long tensions between the KIA and Myanmar’s military, which battle for control of jade revenues.
The armed group has publicly opposed the military regime since its coup last year, and also trained and armed local resistance groups, collectively known as the People’s Defense Force (PDF), which are fighting the regime.
A political analyst said the regime imposed the ban to stretch the finances of the KIA and the PDF.
“As all the companies have to pay tax to the KIA in their transactions, [the regime has imposed the ban] to cut the cash flow to the KIA and PDF,” he said.
“But in Hpakant alone, there are nearly 500,000 prospectors. And it is not an easy task for the military to drive all of them out of the mines. As a result, illegal mining and the illegal market will re-emerge, as in the past,” he added.
A source close to jade miners shared the view that the ban will only create an illegal market.
“If jade mining is criminalized, it will create problems for scavengers. They can be arrested for illegal possession of stones,” he said..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-04-05
Date of entry/update:
2022-04-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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Description:
"Major US online retailers are continuing to sell jewellery with rubies and jade sourced from Myanmar. The continued trade profits the Myanmar military junta, helping to finance its nationwide terror campaign against the Myanmar people. The US has sanctioned Myanma Gems Enterprise but has not banned the import of gems, allowing the trade to continue.
Justice For Myanmar found listings for jewellery with Myanmar gemstones produced by Indian publicly listed company Vaibhav Global Limited and sold through retailers Amazon, Walmart and Overstock. Vaibhav Global has actively traded in Myanmar gemstones since the February 1 attempted coup.
Shipping records since the attempted coup, found in the Panjiva trade database, show imports into India of jade from Vaibhav Global’s Hong Kong subsidiary and rubies from its Thai subsidiary. Some of the shipments originate in Myanmar, while others list precious stones with Myanmar as the country of origin.
Vaibhav Global did not respond to questions from Justice For Myanmar regarding its continued sourcing of jade and gems from Myanmar since the attempted coup.
Online retailers Amazon, Walmart and Overstock also did not respond to questions over the sale of Myanmar gemstones on their platforms and their human rights due diligence. Walmart has removed listings of Vaibhav Global jewellery with Myanmar gemstones, but continues to list Myanmar rubies and jade through other sellers.
Jade and gems are a lucrative source of revenue for the Myanmar military junta and its militias, financing the Myanmar military’s atrocity crimes, particularly in ethnic areas.
The state-owned Myanma Gems Enterprise (MGE), under military control during past regimes, has again come under military control since the attempted coup and controls all aspects of the gemstone industry in Myanmar. Through MGE, the Myanmar military receives a share of revenue from all gemstones sold.
The Myanmar military also profits from mining through its conglomerate, Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL). MEHL has its own jade and ruby businesses and controls the greatest number of licences. MEHL was sanctioned by the US and UK on March 25, and by the EU on April 19.
The US Treasury sanctioned MGE on April 8, followed by the UK on May 17 and EU on June 21.
Vaibhav Global’s international network
Vaibhav Global is a major seller of discounted jewellery, listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and the BSE. According to filings, institutional shareholders include The Vanguard Group, Dimensional Fund Advisors, State Street Global Advisors, BlackRock and the Florida State Board of Administration, all based in the US. The USA is Vaibhav Global’s biggest market, with 2021 financial year revenue at US$234.9 million, according to its latest annual report.
Justice For Myanmar found at least 8 shipments of cut and polished rubies from Vaibhav Global in India to Shop LC Global Inc. in the USA since sanctions were imposed on MGE, based on data from the Panjiva database. These were shipped between May 15 and July 14, 2021.
Other Vaibhav shipments to the USA, as recently as September 19, list unspecified precious and semi-precious stones, as well as manufactured jewellery. Justice For Myanmar asked Vaibhav Global for details about the source of gemstones in these shipments but did not receive a response.
Shipping records from Panjiva show that Vaibhav Global has imported at least 8 shipments of Myanmar rubies to India, where its jewellery is manufactured for export, including since the Myanmar military’s attempted coup and the sanctioning of MGE in Vaibhav Global’s key foreign markets. These shipments were received between February 19 and June 9.
Vaibhav Global primarily sources Myanmar gems from its Thai subsidiary, STS Gems, which lists Myanmar as a key market and claims to procure gems “directly from the source”. Vaibhav Global imports rubies via STS in Bangkok.
Additionally, on April 7, Vaibhav Global received two shipments of jade from Myanmar, sent from STS Gems in Hong Kong.
Vaibhav Global is selling jade and gems from Myanmar through its own websites, its home shopping TV channels, through third-party sites and wholesale to other jewellery businesses.
Vaibhav Global’s main platform for consumer sales in the US is Shop LC, formerly called The Jewellery Channel and Liquidation Channel. Shop LC is headquartered in Austin, Texas.
A search of Shop LC’s website shows at least six items for sale made with Myanmar rubies, including rings, earrings and a pendant, and at least ten items made with Myanmar jade, including necklaces, bracelets and rings. Shop LC also has loose jade available for sale.
Shop LC additionally sells Myanmar jade and ruby jewellery and loose gemstones through major US corporations Amazon, Overstock and until recently, Walmart, who facilitate the transactions and receive a commission on goods sold.
Amazon currently lists a large range of Shop LC jewellery, including Burmese ruby rings, bracelets and pendants, and Burmese jade rings and earrings. Where country of origin is listed, the items specify India.
Amazon also lists loose rubies described as from “Mogok and Mong Shu, Myanmar”. However, the product description lists the country of origin as India.
Overstock lists jade and ruby jewellery manufactured by Vaibhav Global, including rings and loose rubies. Like Amazon, listings specify India as the country of origin, even when the product description describes the stone as “Burmese jade” or “Burmese ruby”.
Overstock states they “require that our suppliers maintain high moral and ethical standards in producing and transporting products offered for sale on our websites”.
Walmart listed a smaller range of Shop LC Myanmar jade and ruby jewellery but appears to have removed listings after being contacted by Justice For Myanmar in October.
Justice For Myanmar asked Amazon, Walmart and Overstock about their business with Shop LC jewellery, their sale of gemstones sourced from Myanmar and their human rights due diligence on third party sellers. None of the companies responded.
Vaibhav Global also sells jade and gems sources from Myanmar through Shop LC in Germany (Shop LC GmBH), and The Jewellery Channel (TJC) in the UK.
In 2018, following the Myanmar military’s campaign of genocide against the Rohingya and the threat of a ban on Myanmar gems, Shop LC launched the promotion “Burmese Ruby Smackdown” with a lighthearted video encouraging increased sales before a ban could be imposed.
Pass the Burma Act and ban Myanmar gemstones
In a press release announcing sanctions, Office of the Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Director Andrea Gacki stated a commitment to “denying the Burmese military sources of funding” through the designation of MGE.
However, Vaibhav Global’s continued trade in Myanmar gemstones shows that US sanctions will have limited impact as the chain of intermediaries between US retailers and MGE may extinguish the sanctions interest, allowing the trade to continue.
A ban on Myanmar origin gems is essential. Section 203 of the Burma Act of 2021, introduced in October and currently before Congress, authorises the prohibition of all US imports of Myanmar gemstones. Justice For Myanmar urges members of Congress to stand with the people of Myanmar by passing the Burma Act and prohibit imports of Myanmar gemstones.
Consumers have an important role to play. Ask retailers to disclose the country of origin of gems they sell and boycott all gems from Myanmar.
Vaibhav Global’s investors must uphold their human rights responsibilities and divest unless the company stops trading in Myanmar gemstones.
The military’s sources of revenue must be cut off to stop the violence and support the rebuilding of a federal democracy..."
Source/publisher:
Justice For Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-11-24
Date of entry/update:
2021-11-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Business and the Military, Sanctions, Gems - mining and trade
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"A new investigation from watchdog group Global Witness reports that jade mining is a major source of income for both the Myanmar military and armed ethnic groups, fueling conflict in the country.
While conflicts between the military and armed groups escalate elsewhere in Myanmar, Global Witness reports that major armed groups and the military work side by side in jade mines in Hpakant in the ethnic-minority state of Kachin.
Armed groups and individual officers have earned fortunes from the jade trade, while Kachin state’s environment, and the communities who depend on it, have paid the price.
Jade mining is fueling conflict in Myanmar, channeling money into the coffers of the military and ethnic armed groups, according watchdog group Global Witness.
The industry buoys the weapons trade and enriches military officials, including the son of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, the group says.
“In Hpakant our investigation revealed that warring parties were collaborating to profit even as conflict between them escalated elsewhere in northern Myanmar,” says a new report by Global Witness, which alleges that major armed groups worked side by side with the military in the jade mines.
The report also accuses Aung Pyae Son, the son of the general who seized power in a coup in February, of directly benefiting from corruption in the jade trade. Global Witness says he received a cut of payment for the import of dynamite and “also profited from arrangements to mine illegally in Hpakant” after the civilian government suspended new licenses.
As the generals enrich themselves and war continues to rage, the environment and the people who depend on it pay the ultimate price.
“The mountains are becoming flat valleys and the valleys are becoming mountains. In Kachin history, there were many historic mountains, but all are gone now,” said a researcher based in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state. The researcher, who asked not to be named, said some residents don’t even recognize the areas where they grew up.
An ethnic Rakhine jade miner, known as a yemase, agreed.
“All the trees are already destroyed. The rivers are filled up with land dug from the mountains,” he said. When he arrived in Hpakant some 10 years ago, the miners “used handheld drills to dig.” “There are much more big machines now and a lot of bulldozers,” he said, explaining this has escalated the environmental damage.
While Myanmar’s jade industry is estimated to be worth more than $30 billion, few local people reap the benefits, causing major grievances over issues of land and resource management. Some itinerant miners do strike it rich, but most risk their lives toiling under grueling condition for little pay. Deadly landslides are frequent, with three miners killed just this week.
Keel Dietz, policy adviser for Global Witness, said even before the coup there was “no sort of post-mining rehabilitation.”
“Companies are supposed to put together mine closure plans, but it’s just a check the box thing, they’re not expected to actually do anything. They usually just abandon them and this causes big environmental problems, huge open pits that fill up with water and waste chemicals,” he said.
In 2020, a landslide killed at least 174 miners. “Villages are perched on the precipice right on the edge of a mining site. There’s going to be more landslides in the future,” Dietz said.
Floods and landslides already plague villages in Hpakant. A flash flood in 2018 killed 11 people and destroyed 70 homes, while the U.N.’s humanitarian office estimated nearly 7,750 people were displaced by flooding in July 2020.
When the National League for Democracy won election in 2015, it struggled to assert control over the jade industry, which had been controlled by the military for decades. “Myanmar’s multi-billion-dollar jade industry is a paradigmatic example” of the country’s “partial reform” which was always “resisted” by the military, Global Witness said.
Matthew Baird, an environmental lawyer with years of experience in Myanmar, said that when the NLD came to power, even “talking about jade and gem mining was very risky.” He said the civilian government had made some progress, despite the “big challenge.” “We know a lot more about the industry, its corruption and its hazards that was not possible under the previous administration,” Baird said.
But with the military back in full control, Global Witness said it expects the situation to worsen, adding the coup has “crushed any hopes that these policies and regulations will be finalised, let alone improved.”.....The conflict economy: In 2019 and 2020, the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, and the Arakan Army fought a brutal war in Rakhine state. As of June 2021, the U.N. estimated that more than 81,000 people, mostly ethnic Rakhine, remain displaced as a result of the conflict. Despite this, both armed groups were operating in the mines in Hpakant, and likely cooperating, as was the Kachin Independence Army, which was largely avoiding clashes at the time.
The Rakhine yemase confirmed to Mongabay that the AA, which is hugely popular with ethnic Rakhine people, is active in the mines and collects money from workers, but denied this was a form of taxation. “The yemase people from Rakhine voluntarily share profit with the AA,” he said. He also said the AA settles disputes between Rakhine people and other miners, adding that the AA will sometimes impose fines on troublemakers of up to 300,000 kyat ($225).
Global Witness reported that a “well-placed Rakhine businessperson” claimed that jade is the “primary income source” for the AA, and said the industry likely fueled the group’s “rapid expansion and recruitment.” It also found evidence of at least one company run directly by the AA active in the mines.
The Kachin researcher in Myitkyina said that the military, AA and KIA are all taking taxes from people working in the mines, with each group’s business interests blurring into the others’. “Hpakant is brown, not black or white,” he said. He added that sometimes when one group needs to transport jade stones, it goes through the other group’s territory, requiring cooperation and payment.
A fourth armed group, the United Wa State Army, often pays the KIA in weapons, according to Global Witness, which also says a KIA intelligence official reported these weapons are then sold on to the AA for a profit.
Since the coup, however, this dynamic has been upended. The AA is now observing a temporary cease-fire with the Tatmadaw in exchange for political concessions, while the KIA has joined the pro-democracy movement, launching attacks on the junta. Fighting has even reached Hpakant, ending the informal agreement to avoid conflict in the mines. However, Global Witness said that “such cooperation could re-emerge in the future in a similar form.”.....Widespread corruption: The jade mines have long been a major source of income for the military and its generals. In addition to Min Aung Hlaing’s son, other high-ranking military officers and former officials benefit either through their own jade mining companies or by taking bribes to allow other companies to mine illegally.
Two military-controlled conglomerates “collectively control more mining licences than any other entity,” according to Global Witness. Meanwhile, the Myanmar Gems Enterprise is tasked with regulating the jade industry, while also maintaining its own commercial interests in jade, a clear conflict of interest, especially given that MGE includes former military officials.
“Now there are serious concerns that the military will simply re-open the licensing process, reaping a windfall in bribes and doling out access to the best jade mining plots to allies in exchange for loyalty and political support,” Global Witness said.
While some Western countries have imposed sanctions on MGE and the conglomerates, this may fail to significantly dent the junta’s profits, as “the overwhelming majority of jade is in fact smuggled out of Myanmar directly into China without ever entering the formal system,” according to Global Witness.
Baird said the Tatmadaw should not be recognized as a legitimate governing body, and called for it to be designated as a “transnational criminal enterprise” under the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
“The current illegal exploitation of gems and natural resources, and the complicity of the Tatmadaw and the commercial enterprises makes them liable for these criminal acts,” Baird said, also appealing to China and Singapore to freeze any assets linked to military companies.
The Kachin researcher said military postings in the area are coveted, as they allow officials to build up connections in the industry. “When they were there, they built a good relationship with the local officials and they knew the local context,” he said, adding they later leverage these relationships for financial benefits.
Dietz said that with the Tatmadaw back in power, “there is little chance for serious reform.” “Why would the Tatmadaw reform an industry that it benefits from so much?” he said..."
Source/publisher:
Mongabay
Date of publication:
2021-07-02
Date of entry/update:
2021-07-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
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"Burma Campaign UK today welcomed an announcement by the British government that they are imposing sanctions on Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE). MGE manages the gemstones industry in Burma, which will be a significant source of revenue for the military now that it has seized control of government ministries.
MGE is a state-owned enterprise under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation. MGE was sanctioned by the USA on 8th April 2021.
The UK sanctions follow previous sanctions on two military-owned conglomerates, Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC).
Since the military coup on 1st February 2021 around 800 people have been killed, more than 5,000 arrested and more than 60,000 displaced from their homes by the Burmese military. It is essential that the British government uses all tools at its disposal, economic, legal, diplomatic and building an arms embargo coalition, in order to maximise pressure on the Burmese military.
“Today’s new sanctions are another positive step by the British government towards cutting revenue going to the military,” said Anna Roberts, Executive Director of Burma Campaign UK. “The government now needs to moves swiftly to ban imports of gems from Burma, and expand sanctions to the timber industry as well.”
Burma Campaign UK is also calling on the European Union to sanction Burma’s timber and gems industries, now that the military is the main beneficiary of revenue from these industries..."
Source/publisher:
"Burma Campaign UK" (London)
Date of publication:
2021-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Sanctions - general, UK-Burma relations, Economic activities of the Myanmar Military, Business and the Military, Sanctions, Gems - mining and trade, Gems
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Description:
"Today I would like to express my most sincere thanks to the Government of the United Kingdom for designating Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE) with strict sanctions as a company that is directly supporting the killing of innocent civilians by supplying huge revenue streams to the terrorist regime forces.
I would also like to reiterate my sincere thanks to the People, Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom for standing in solidarity and being a strong voice for the people of Myanmar. I also want to express my gratitude for the efforts of the UK on coordinating targeted sanctions against key tatmadaw personnel, tatmadaw
linked companies and enterprises such as MEC and MEHL, and for providing extra funding to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar. Additionally, I would like to further thank the UK government for taking a strong leadership role in the UN and G7 summits on behalf of the people of Myanmar, and for the recognition
of CRPH and NUG as important voices of many in this nation.
The UK has announced additional measures targeting the Myanmar regime today (17 May), with new sanctions imposed against Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE). These latest sanctions aim to cut off a key source of funding for the military junta, which is responsible for serious human rights violations against the people of Myanmar, including the killing of children. Foreign Secretary of UK, Dominic Raab, said:
“The military junta in Myanmar continues to crush democracy and attack its own people with brutal ferocity. We are working with our allies to impose sanctions that hit the junta’s access to finance, and deliver a return to democracy.” The asset freeze imposed by the sanctions prevents anyone from dealing with funds
or economic resources which are owned or controlled by MGE and held in the UK. It also blocks others from providing funds or economic resources to MGE..."
Source/publisher:
Ministry of International Cooperation Myanmar
Date of publication:
2021-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Sanctions - general, UK-Burma relations, Economic activities of the Myanmar Military, Business and the Military, Sanctions, Gems - mining and trade, Gems, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, National Unity Government (NUG)
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Sub-title:
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announces sanctions on Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE), a state-owned enterprise under the military junta’s control.
Description:
"Foreign Secretary announces new sanctions against Myanmar Gems Enterprise
the move will deprive the junta of a key source of funding – the gem trade is a multi-billion dollar business for Myanmar
the UK has already sanctioned senior Myanmar military officers and their economic interests following February’s military coup
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has announced additional measures targeting the Myanmar regime today (17 May) with new sanctions imposed against Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE).
MGE is a state owned enterprise which oversees all gemstone activities in Myanmar and is now under the junta’s control following the military coup on 1 February.
The designation against MGE will cut off a key source of funding for the military junta, which continues to subvert democracy and is responsible for the violent repression and serious human rights violations against the people of Myanmar, including the killing of children. Myanmar is one of the world’s largest producers of rubies and jade – trade in jade for example is a multi-billion dollar business for the country.
Enforced with immediate effect, the sanctions are the first since the UK laid new Myanmar sanctions regulations in parliament on 29 April. They demonstrate the UK’s commitment to targeting the military junta’s funding streams to put pressure on them to immediately end the coup.
Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said:
The military junta in Myanmar continues to crush democracy and attack its own people with brutal ferocity. We are working with our allies to impose sanctions that hit the junta’s access to finance, and deliver a return to democracy.
The asset freeze imposed by the sanctions prevents anyone from dealing with funds or economic resources which are owned or controlled by the designated entity and held in the UK. It also blocks others from providing funds or economic resources to the designated individual or entity – in this case MGE.
Today’s announcement, made in conjunction with the United States and Canada, follows the recent G7 and ASEAN meetings which reiterated the strong and united view of the international community in opposition to the actions of the military junta in Myanmar. The UK, alongside the G7, is urging all countries to immediately suspend arms sales to Myanmar and welcomes the recent suspension of sales by Japan and the Republic of Korea.
The UK is clear that ASEAN has a central role to play in resolving the crisis and that the military regime must implement the ASEAN Five Point Consensus without delay. The UK calls for all companies to cut ties with military-linked businesses with direct effect..."
Date of publication:
2021-05-17
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-18
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Sanctions - general, UK-Burma relations, Economic activities of the Myanmar Military, Sanctions, Gems - mining and trade, Gems
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Opposition to the military’s coup has boosted ethnic armed groups, creating a new challenge to its lucrative jade and gems business
Description:
"Life in Myanmar’s jade-producing regions was always difficult and precarious but since the military seized power from the civilian government on February 1, it has become even more dangerous.
In Kachin State’s Hpakant township, which has the world’s largest and most lucrative jade mines, there are more soldiers and police, access to mining sites has become more difficult and local markets have stopped operating.
“Many places are dangerous to dig jade now. There are only a few places where we can dig by hand or small machine,” said Sut Naw, a local miner who preferred to use a pseudonym for security reasons.
Police and soldiers are now guarding company compounds, he added, patrolling roads day and night. They also stop people on the streets or in their vehicles, checking for jade and other valuables and searching through people’s phones for evidence of resistance to the coup.
“I have seen many zombie movies, but never realised that I would be living in a similar environment,” he said. “People don’t go out at all unless they have to.”
The military has long dominated Myanmar’s jade industry and continues to rake in immense profits. Myanmar’s annual jade and gems emporium, held from April 1 to 10, brought in $6.5m on the sixth day alone, according to state media.....Lucrative resource: In 2015, the environmental watchdog Global Witness valued Myanmar’s jade industry at $31bn and described it as possibly the “biggest natural resource heist in modern history.” Identifying the Tatmadaw and armed elites as the industry’s biggest profiteers, the exploitation of jade was “an appalling crime that poses a serious threat to democracy and peace in Myanmar,” it said.
Keel Dietz, a Myanmar policy adviser with Global Witness, told Al Jazeera that with the Tatmadaw now in total control over the formal governance of natural resources, they were likely to step up that exploitation.
“There is a huge risk that the military, in their desperate efforts to maintain control, will look to the country’s natural resource wealth to sustain their rule, to buy weapons, and enrich themselves,” he said.
Escalating clashes between the Kachin Independence Army, the armed wing of an ethnic armed group in the resource-rich northern state and the military, known as the Tatmadaw, have raised questions over the control over the jade mines.
Before a 1994 ceasefire, the Kachin Independence Organization, which has been fighting for federal rights to self-determination since 1961, controlled most of the mines and local people were able to enjoy a share of the wealth through small-scale mining activities. The KIA is its armed wing.
The ceasefire saw most of the jade-mining region nationalised under a military government known for exploiting resources without regard for the social and environmental consequences.
The state-owned Myanmar Gems Enterprise took control over the regulation of mining activity and issuing licences, which it signed over to itself and to companies that benefitted its interests, including proxy companies, companies run by military cronies and those connected to armed actors including the United Wa State Army, which runs its own special administrative region on the China border and has a history of links to drug trafficking.
These companies levelled mountains, dug enormous trenches and dumped waste with impunity.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants flocked to the area, dreaming of digging their way to prosperity but found themselves scavenging through company waste heaps; if they found a big stone, it was confiscated by soldiers.
The natural environment was destroyed, landslides and mining accidents claimed hundreds of lives, and drug abuse skyrocketed – all while the Tatmadaw pocketed handsome profits.
Shortly after winning elections in 2015, the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi pledged to reform the industry and in August 2016, suspended the renewal of mining licences and the issuance of new ones.
But companies bypassed the suspensions with impunity, and the NLD government was widely criticised by rights groups for failing to bring meaningful changes to the jade industry. In July 2020, more than 170 people were buried in a landslide in a Hpakant jade mine.
“The government and military have never respected natural resources,” said Ah Shawng,* a land and Indigenous rights activist in Hpakant. “They extract resources as they wish and only for themselves. .. Our natural resources are all disappearing and being destroyed.”
But since the coup, resistance to centralised policies and the exploitation of ethnic people and the land and resources in their states appears to be rising.....Shifting allegiances: The 2008 military-drafted constitution, which centralised land and resource management at the union level and entrenched Tatmadaw power, was abolished on March 31 by officials forced out by the military. In its place, they put forward an interim Federal Democracy Charter.
Mainstream support for armed resistance to military rule has also increased, as the Tatmadaw arrests thousands and indiscriminately shoots civilians. Some 739 people have been killed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which is tracking the violence.
With ethnic armed groups, including the KIO, in a position to offer protection and help fight back against the generals, ethnic minorities’ struggles for self-determination under a federal system, which were once largely ignored by the majority Bamar public, are now increasingly popular. Pro-KIA demonstrations have been held across Kachin State and even in central Myanmar, while the number of recruits is rising.
Although the KIA and Tatmadaw have been at war since the ceasefire collapsed in 2011, fighting had slowed since 2018.
But since the coup conflict has escalated. Clashes have been taking place nearly every day. The KIA, so far, appears to have the upper hand – it has taken several Tatmadaw bases and claims to have obliterated entire battalions, killing hundreds of soldiers.
Some of the most intense fighting has occurred in and around Hpakant, where Ah Shawng, the local rights activist who also prefers to use a pseudonym for her security, says most locals support the KIA.
“Now, when [junta] forces harm people, the KIA protects and stands with us,” she said, adding that the KIA had been successful in driving out some security forces from the area.
On March 28, the KIA killed about 30 policemen who had raided a jade mining site operated by the Taut Pa Kyal mining company, according to Kachin State-based media reports.
The company, according to a BBC Burmese article, is backed by the Kyaw Naing company, which has 64 licenced mining sites and failed to disclose a military crony among its beneficial owners in 2020. Days later, a photo circulated on social media of a police station, allegedly at another company jade mining site in Hpakant, bearing a white flag of surrender to the KIA. Al Jazeera contacted the KIO to verify the incidents but they declined to comment on matters related to Hpakant.
The KIA may be fighting to gain control of other areas as well – including some areas beyond Kachin State.
Local news agency Myanmar Now reported on April 15 that the KIA and Tatmadaw had clashed in Mogok, a city in Mandalay region hundreds of miles from Kachin State.
Mogok’s mines possess the world’s most valuable rubies, as well as other lucrative gemstones. On April 16, a group of youth in Mogok staged a pro-KIA march and drew a large “Welcome KIA” banner on the street. The next day, the military forces gunned down at least two people in the city.....Sanctions, import bans: The United States has already imposed sanctions on Myanmar Gems Enterprise, as well as on two military holding companies, Myanmar Economic Holdings Public Company Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited (MEC). This week, the European Union also added MEHL and MEC to its sanctions list.
Dietz of Global Witness told Al Jazeera that while the sanctions were “hugely important,” they were likely to have only a limited effect on the jade sector without the support of China, which serves as the primary market for Myanmar’s jade, a highly prized luminous green stone.
“Global Witness encourages the international community to place import bans on all jade and coloured gemstones coming from Myanmar,” he said. He also expressed concern that as the Tatmadaw finds itself squeezed of funds, it might try sell off resource concessions in exchange for fast cash. “The international community should make it clear to commodity trading firms and other investors in natural resources that now is not the time to be making large new resource deals in Myanmar – the military regime is not a legitimate government, and should not be allowed to sell away Myanmar’s remaining mineral wealth to sustain itself,” he said.
Tu Hkawng the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation under the newly-formed interim National Unity Government running in parallel to the generals’ administration, told Al Jazeera that it was time to bring natural resource management back into the hands of the local people.
Appointed on April 16, he has already begun engaging with local stakeholders to reform natural resource management policy through the lens of Indigenous rights.
“We are trying to build a collective leadership … to engage more with the grassroots-level community and solve the problems together,” he said. “This is a bottom-up approach. In order to achieve it, we have to build a network with every stakeholder and collaborate.”
He hopes that by addressing natural resource governance, the civil wars that have plagued the country for the past 70 years can finally be brought to an end.
“Every ethnic group has the right to manage and benefit from the natural resources on its own land. Right now we don’t have that,” he said. “If everyone gets to govern their own land, we won’t have to fight any more.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2021-04-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-22
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Kachin State, Economic activities of the Myanmar Military, Business and the Military, Armed conflict in Kachin State - general articles, Illegal Economy - general, Anti-coup protesters, Rail Workers strike, Armed conflict in Burma - attacks on civilians, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
Language:
more
Sub-title:
At least 174 'unwashed' are killed as landslides and heavy rains entomb them in country's worst-ever mine disaster
Description:
"or the “unwashed” as the jade miners of northern Myanmar are known – arrived early Thursday at the pit to scrape out a living on a scraggy hillside, lured by the prospect of finding a stone that could transform their lives.
But only three would return, the others victims of Myanmar’s worst-ever mine disaster after a landslide in heavy rains entombed at least 174 people, with scores more feared missing.
Sai Ko, 22, survived the spin-dryer of rock and heavy sludge by clinging to the corpse of a fellow miner, and battling to land.
His friend Zaw Lwin, 29, and his younger brother San Lwin were miraculously spat out from the churning torrent and delivered naked onto the shore, their clothes ripped off by the deluge.
But two of the crew didn’t make it. Than Niang was cremated on Saturday, while Thet Shin is missing presumed dead, one of scores of victims still unaccounted for from the accident at the Hwekha mine, in northern Kachin State.
“We have many dreams of helping our families,” a shaken Sai Ko told AFP. “But it’s not worth it. I will never go back.”
The hillside which buried his friends harbors jadeite, a stone which goes for a fortune over the Kachin border in China in a multi-billion dollar industry dominated by firms linked to Myanmar’s military.
But for the poor migrants from across Myanmar who travel hundreds of miles to prospect in Hpakant, big paydays are few and far between..."
Source/publisher:
"Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
Date of publication:
2020-07-05
Date of entry/update:
2020-07-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Rescue operations continue for a fourth day in the country's worst ever jade mine landslide, as more bodies are buried.
Description:
"Aye Mon, 30, is left alone with a two-year-old daughter after her husband and younger brother died in Myanmar's worst jade mine landslide that killed more than 170 people on Thursday.
In hopes of finding gems that might transform his future, her brother, Shwe Moe Tun, 22, had travelled more than 600km (370 miles) from his village in Monywa to Hpakant area of Kachin state in northern Myanmar, home to a secretive billion-dollar jade industry. "My husband had been working in the jade mining business for more than 10 years. But it was the first time for my brother. It was his second working day in the mine," Aye Mon told Al Jazeera.
At least 40 jade pickers killed in the disaster at Wai Khar mine were buried on Saturday, the country's fire services department said on their Facebook page, while 77 others were interred in a mass grave on Friday.
Many more were cremated according to Buddhist traditions. Rescue operations were still ongoing for the fourth day on Sunday as bodies of the victims were still being recovered from the site of the accident..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-07-06
Date of entry/update:
2020-07-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"A massive landslide in Northern Myanmar has left more than 120 miners dead, when heavy rainstorm created a mud wave that buried workers in a jade mine. Authorities expect the death toll to be rise as many more victims are recovered..."
Source/publisher:
"FRANCE 24 English"
Date of publication:
2020-07-02
Date of entry/update:
2020-07-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The miners were 'smothered by a wave of mud' caused by heavy rain, officials say.
Description:
"A landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar has killed at least 113 people, officials say, warning the death toll is likely to rise further.
The incident took place early on Thursday in the jade-rich Hpakant area of Kachin state after a bout of heavy rainfall, the Myanmar Fire Services Department said on Facebook.
"The jade miners were smothered by a wave of mud," the statement said. "A total of 113 bodies have been found so far," it added, raising the death toll from at least 50.
Photos posted on the Facebook page showed a search and rescue team wading through a valley apparently flooded by the mudslide..."
Source/publisher:
"Al Jazeera" (Qatar)
Date of publication:
2020-07-02
Date of entry/update:
2020-07-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description:
"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..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2020-06-10
Date of entry/update:
2020-06-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
more
Description:
"Myanmar earned over 59.4 billion kyats (39.6 million U.S. dollars) from a gems and jade sale event which was concluded on Tuesday, an official of Myanma Gems Enterprise (MGE) told media.
The gems and jade sale event, kicked off in capital city Nay Pyi Taw on Jan. 2, was organized by the Myanma Gems Enterprise (MGE) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.
A total of 3,491 jade lots and nine gem lots were sold at the event, with 2,023 merchants in attendance, said General Manager Thet Khaing.
All 25 state-owned jade lots were sold out at the event and fetched about 450 million kyats (300,000 U.S. dollars), he added.
The last gems and jade sale, which was held in June 2019, fetched 60.89 billion kyats (40.6 million U.S. dollars) from the sale of 49 gems lots and 3,011 jade lots, with 2,010 local merchants in attendance..."
Source/publisher:
"Xinhua" (China)
Date of publication:
2020-01-07
Date of entry/update:
2020-01-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Sales at the recent jade expo in Mandalay city totalled over K30 billion (US$19.72 million), according to U Kyaw Zaw Aung, chair of the event’s organising committee.
Description:
"The weeklong expo, which concluded October 29 at the Mandalay Convention Centre, included sales of raw and finished jade and gemstones.
“We sold more than 1800 jade lots and earned more than K30 billion,” he said. “We thank all those who displayed their gems at the event and jade and gems merchants.”
U Kyaw Zaw Aung said that more revenue than expected was generated by the event, considering the country’s economic difficulties.
He said the organisers were encouraged by the results and would continue to hold such events.
Over 2890 jade lots were offered for sale at the exhibition. Jade sellers had to pay 11 percent in jewellery taxes, and buyers paid 5pc in commercial taxes.
More than 6500 local and 500 foreign gem traders attended the exhibition. Admission was K20,000 for locals, and K100,000 for foreigners. Foreigners were not allowed to buy raw jade lots, but were able to buy finished gems..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2019-11-05
Date of entry/update:
2019-11-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Gems
Language:
more
Description:
"SMALL concession holders in the world renowned "valley of rubies" in Mogok, Mandalay recently protested against unfair allocation of mines by the Myanmar government.
Some 300 miners marched in the Kyat Pyin town urging fair allocation of gemstone mines, particularly to small block holders who are claiming discrimination as they are bound to be given unproductive mines according to The Myanmar Times.
Gemstone miner U Zaw Win who led the protest said there is a need to put a better system of allocation to small block concession holders.
"We are allocated places in remote areas, where there is little vacant land and no gems. There will be repercussions if Mogok locals are only assigned areas of little value,” he said.
The concessions for small block holders stretches on an area measuring about 33,000 hectares in three zones while for medium scale holders, 6,500ha has been allocated, also in three zones.
“The small block holder zones are far from town where there are no gems. They are very hard to excavate,” U Zaw Win said.
He also claimed some of the concessions assigned to small miners in the border areas of Mandalay and Shan State are blocks that are avoided by locals like him because of problems like malaria.
Sein Lan Mogok Environmental Conservation group secretary U Ye Aung said such mine operations was unproductive because miners would not be able to send daily wage earners to such remote locations.
The Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation ministry recently set up a regional gem block allocation and screening group to allocate an acre of land for gem mining to local residents. Each concession is good for one year..."
Source/publisher:
"New Straits Times" (Malaysia)
Date of publication:
2019-11-03
Date of entry/update:
2019-11-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Mud filter collapsed at Hpakant in Kachin State, causing landslide that hit miners’ sleeping quarters
Description:
"At least 54 jade miners in Myanmar are feared to have died after they were engulfed by a landslide “mud lake” as they slept.
In one of the worst disasters to hit Myanmar’s notoriously treacherous jade mining industry, a mud filter collapsed at a mine in Hpakant in Myanmar’s Kachin State on late Monday night, causing a landslide that hit the miners’ sleeping quarters. It buried the sleeping men and 40 pieces of heavy machinery.
On Tuesday morning, a rescue operation began at the mine, which is about 30m deep. However, none of the 54 miners, most of whom were migrant workers, are thought to have survived the incident and, by Wednesday, only three bodies had been retrieved from the mud.
“They won’t survive. It is not possible because they are buried under mud,” Tin Soe, a local official, told Reuters. The two companies operating the mine were named as Shwe Nagar Koe Kaung and Myanmar Thura.
Myanmar’s shadowy jade industry, which is highly unregulated and controlled by the military and private conglomerates, has long been condemned for prioritising profit over safety, and dozens die every year in deadly landslides, particularly when monsoon season hits. Last year dozens of miners died in a landslide at another jade mine in Hpakant and statistics from 2017 showed almost 80 officially recorded deaths, though the unofficial toll is assumed to be higher.
A Global Witness report from 2014 put the value of jade production in Myanmar at about $31bn, nearly half of Myanmar’s GDP that year. However, little of the profits trickle down into the country and most of the jade is sold or smuggled into China, where the stone is in high demand..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2019-04-25
Date of entry/update:
2019-11-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title:
Burrowing deep underground, thousands of informal miners risk their lives to find gleaming red gems as a law change spurs opportunity in Myanmar’s “land of rubies”.
Description:
"Miners arriving with equipment on motorcycles at a ruby mining site in Mogok, north of Mandalay...Miners working in a ruby mine in Mogok, north of Mandalay...Miners panning for rubies and other gemstones in a ruby mine in Mogok, north of Mandalay...A miner entering a tunnel in a ruby mine in Mogok, north of Mandalay..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2019-05-27
Date of entry/update:
2019-11-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
more
Description:
"As if human rights abuses, corruption charges and deadly landslides haven’t hurt the industry enough, Myanmar’s multi-billion-dollar jade and gemstone industry now has to deal with the challenges of e-commerce.
Myanmar produces 90 percent of the world’s jade and is a major player in the global gem economy, but poor regulations mean up to two-third of the country’s production is possibly not subjected to tax according to a report by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) in March.
The increasingly affluent China is the biggest market for Myanmar’s jade, and Radio Free Asia has reported how the highly valuable stone is often smuggled untaxed across porous borders to Chinese buyers – and the direct sale of jade online may now make up about 80 percent of all purchases, bypassing Myanmar’s tax collectors..."
Source/publisher:
"The ASEAN Post"
Date of publication:
2019-10-19
Date of entry/update:
2019-10-20
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Gems, Burma's economic relations with China, Border Trade with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"Myanmar’s poorly regulated Jade and Gemstones production means up to two-thirds of all the country produces is possibly not subjected to tax, a new report by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) reveals. Experts believe that this, as well as chronic undervaluing of registered jade and gemstones, costs the country billions of dollars in lost tax revenue.
Myanmar produces 90 percent of the world’s jade and is a leading producer of rubies, sapphires, and other varieties of coloured gemstones. China is the largest beneficiary of this trade, with untold amounts of jade and gemstones being imported and smuggled across the border to meet the demand of its growing elite.
Myanmar, a former British colony, was under military rule from 1962 to 2011, during which time it was increasingly internationally isolated and became one of the world’s most impoverished countries. Military rule was dissolved in 2011 and since then, the country has engaged in a turbulent liberalisation process. Its GDP has grown steadily over the past several years, reaching an all-time high of $69.32 billion in 2017.
Despite significant growth, 32 percent of Myanmar’s citizens still live in poverty and the nation’s infrastructure is ranked 146th out of 148 countries in the world. This is in large part because Myanmar does not collect enough tax. A recent report by the Asia Foundation revealed that Myanmar’s tax receipts for 2016-17 were only 6 to 7 percent of its GDP, the lowest among all ASEAN nations..."
Source/publisher:
"Belt & Road News" (China)
Date of publication:
2019-03-17
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-26
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems, Gems - mining and trade, Burma's economic relations with China, China-Burma relations
Language:
more
Description:
"The world’s biggest jade mines are found in the restive Kachin state in Myanmar.
BBC Burmese gained rare access to area where mountains have been turned into moonscapes.
The industry has been estimated to be valued at a staggering $31bn (£25bn) annually.
Hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to the area to scavenger among the rubble left over from the mine – hoping to get find fragments of the stone.
It’s a dangerous job and heroin addiction among the miners and scavengers is epidemic..."
Source/publisher:
"BBC"
Date of publication:
2019-09-13
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Minerals and Mining - Burma (general articles and analyses), Karen (Kayin) State
Language:
more
Topic:
Jade Mine, Kachin State, Landslides
Sub-title:
Year after year, landslides in Myanmar’s jade mines kill hundreds of workers. Authorities place profits ahead of human lives.
Topic:
Jade Mine, Kachin State, Landslides
Description:
"The Hpakant jade mining pits in Kachin state are one of Myanmar’s key natural assets. Around 300,000 migrant labourers extract US$31 billion of the precious stones annually. This is nearly half of Myanmar’s gross domestic product (GDP). The jade mines are also known for tragedy. About 807 deaths were reported in Myanmar’s jade mines between 2015 and 2018. Without the resources or means to extract the bodies, victims’ remains are rarely found, buried under deep layers of mud.
In April 2019, the latest tragedy occurred in Hpakant. It claimed at least 54 lives overnight. An abandoned mining pit, containing wastewater and discarded mining materials, collapsed. As it buckled, it dumped mud on the miners working below. Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE) investigated the incident and attributed the disaster to the instability of the earth.Hpakant’s terrain is extremely unstable. The various mining companies dump earth without any thought for risks present. To maximise space, mines are narrow and deep. These unstable structures make them a ticking time bomb for landslides. The landscape is also littered with abandoned mines, adding to its geological instability.
Since the adoption of large machinery in the mining process, environmental destruction is occurring at a faster rate. The upcoming monsoon rains from May until October will likely trigger more mudslides, causing more deaths...."
Source/publisher:
"ASEAN Today"
Date of publication:
2019-05-28
Date of entry/update:
2019-09-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Kachin State, Gems - mining and trade
Language:
more
Description:
"A mudslide buried 54 miners last month at a jade mine in Hpakant in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. Mines in Hpakant produce some of the finest jade in the world..."
Source/publisher:
"Radio Free Asia"
Date of publication:
2019-05-02
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
more
Description:
"The jade trade between Myanmar and China is worth an estimated US$30 billion a year - about half of Myanmar’s GDP. But jade mining is a bloodstained business built on drug addiction, slave labour and massive environmental destruction. Who should be responsible for the dark side of jade?.."
Source/publisher:
CNA Insider
Date of publication:
2018-09-08
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Burma's economic relations with China, Gems, The impact of natural disasters on the environment and people of Burma/Myanmar
Language:
more
Sub-title:
The jade hub of Hpakant, in Kachin State in the north of the north of the country, is frequently hit by deadly accidents, despite government pledges to clean up the lucrative mining industry.
Description:
"The jade hub of Hpakant, in Kachin State in the north of the country, is frequently hit by deadly accidents, despite government pledges to clean up the lucrative mining industry.
In April, 55 mining company employees were killed when a pond up a slope from where they were digging breached its banks, leading authorities to suspended 17 mining blocks over safety concerns.
The police chief in the area, Than Win Aung, told Reuters from the accident site that 14 bodies had been recovered and four people, two of them policeman who were guarding the mining site, were missing and feared dead.
"We were able to rescue two members of the police who only injured their heads, and sent them to hospital," he said.
One policeman was confirmed dead, he said.
The government has ordered all mining activity in Hpakant to cease during Myanmar's May-October monsoon season, but people in the area say scavengers still scour tailing piles for jade.
"The companies aren't operating because of the water," said Than Win Aung. "Security people are on duty in order to prevent landslides due to illegal mining."
Yau Dau, 25, who lives next to the mining site, said the landslide happened after midnight..."
Source/publisher:
TRT World via "AFP"
Date of publication:
2019-07-29
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-29
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
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Description:
"An elderly Kachin man wearing a white collared shirt and traditional checkered longyi stands alone, staring over the edge of a precipice. He is dwarfed by the ravaged landscape of Maw Wan Lay, a jade mining area north of Hpakant, in central Kachin State about 180 kilometres west of Myitkyina.
On the ground beside him is a shrine: red roses, white chrysanthemums and a photograph of his son, delicately arranged on top of a mound of stones.
Three photographs of the bereaved father’s tribute were uploaded to Facebook by his daughter, Ma Lu Lamung, on April 26. “Who would have understood the agony of a father whose only son perished. Not even a dead body to grieve over,” she wrote in her post.
“My father kept looking down in tears to see whether he would get a glimpse of the body.”
Her brother was buried alive four days earlier while working the night shift at a jade mine operated by Shwe Nagar Koe Kaung Company.
Looming above him as he worked was an informal tailings dam in a disused mine formerly operated by Unity Gems Company. After Unity’s licence expired in October 2017, the open-cut site filled with water; after 18 months of illegal waste dumping by other miners, it was a lake of thick, unstable mud that covered at least three acres (1.2 hectares) and was 100 feet (30 metres) deep.
“It was like an infinity pool over the miners’ heads,” U Maw Htun Aung, Myanmar country manager for the Natural Resource Governance Institute, told Frontier at his office in Yangon. “At the same time the miners did not stop digging and using dynamite to blast the rock apart,” he said. “They were basically living under a time bomb.”
At about 11.30pm on April 22, the thin earthen wall that contained the dam collapsed, releasing a torrent of mud that surged into the open-cut mine below, submerging the workers.
The next day, the Ministry of Information announced that 28 employees of Myanmar Thura Gems Company and 26 miners who worked for Shwe Nagar Koe Kaung Gems (Nine Golden Dragons) Company had been buried under the mud, along with 40 pieces of machinery owned by the two companies.
What the report elided was that Myanmar Thura did not have a permit to mine in the blocks affected by the dam’s collapse. Nor did the other two companies that were reportedly extracting jade in the same area: Chaow Brothers Gemstone Enterprise, also known as Chaung Brothers, and KNDPC, or Kachin National Development and Progress Company.
A Frontier investigation has found that this tragic accident at Hpakant was preventable and the result of a lack of political will and long-standing policy failures that have, if anything, worsened under the National League for Democracy government.
The legal framework for jade mining is completely unsuitable for the nature of the business and has worsened under a newly introduced Gemstone Law. The companies were able to operate at the site without permits due to a lack of enforcement. The government has failed to ensure companies follow environmental and safety rules, and has stalled on planned reforms in these areas. The companies themselves were unwilling to acknowledge and act on the risks of mining so close to the dam.
Deadly landslides are common in Hpakant. They are typically caused by the partial collapse of designated tailings heaps, where itinerant miners known as yemase are permitted to forage for pieces of jade among the crushed rock discarded by mining companies.
The collapse of the tailings dams represents a new danger, though. Maw Htun Aung said at least 20 similar dams have formed in Hpakant at abandoned mines since the government imposed a moratorium on renewing jade permits in April 2016, pending a review of mining laws.
Some of these are dangerously close to villages, he said, and Hpakant residents have been warning the government of the dangers for some time..."
Clare Hammond, Ye Mon
Source/publisher:
Frontier Myanmar
Date of publication:
2019-06-03
Date of entry/update:
2019-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Gold is valuable but jade is priceless, so goes a Chinese saying. For centuries, the Chinese consider jade an imperial stone with mystical properties. Today it is coveted all over China as a status symbol, a collectible and an investment.
Demand from increasingly wealthy Chinese drives the value of jade through the roof. At this year?s Shanghai World Jewellery Expo, auctioneers put the opening bid for top grade jade items at more than $160 a gram, exceeding four times the price of gold.
Intricately designed pieces, made from top grade jade known as jadeite, are viewed as attractive investments despite the lack of scientific valuation methods. In recent years, jadeite has provided better returns than real estate.
But the imperial stone delivers a death sentence to treasure hunters in Myanmar, where China?s jadeite comes from.
Most of Myanmar?s raw jade enters a murky black market. Its official revenue from jade exports over from 2011 to 2014 was $1.3bn. But Harvard University?s Ash Center estimates total jade sales - including through unofficial channels - were $8bn in 2011 alone, suggesting most of the revenue does not go into government coffers.
The Myanmar government will not speak to us on camera. But our investigations reveal a corrupt senior government official who works with businessmen in the illegal trade of raw jade, including helping to falsify tax documents.
In northern Kachin state, we follow jade smugglers to the remote Hpakant mining town, the source of the world?s best jade. The men are part of the government?s border guard force. The officer in charge tells us how he pays off army and police commanders along the smuggling trail to China.
Hpakant is out of bounds to foreigners and no foreign journalists have been known to make it there for years. Large mining companies suspended operations here in 2012 after the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government went to war the preceding year, ending a 17-year ceasefire. With peace talks stalling, most companies have yet to resume excavation.
Despite the tension, tens of thousands of small time jade pickers have flooded Hpakant to sift through mine tailings, risking life and limb to toil in harsh conditions, hoping to strike jackpot. Some work alone, others in groups supported by businessmen. Their findings often go straight into the black market, forming the unregulated bedrock of the industry today."
A dark force fuels their labour. Jade picker Aik San estimates 75 percent of the miners have become drug addicts. They get their daily dose of heroin or yama - a type of methamphetamine - from drug dens around town. It numbs them from their backbreaking labour and helps them work longer hours in the harsh weather. With hidden cameras, we obtain shocking footage from the drug dens, revealing the scale of drug abuse that infests the underbelly of the jade trade. We also find a drug rehabilitation centre in Kachin state with more than 50 recovering addicts from the mining town. One of them, Aung Kyaw Moe, painfully shares how his employer paid him and fellow workers with heroin to get them hooked so they would work harder for their next dose.
As the hammer goes down in major Chinese cities for more glitzy jade items auctioned off at record levels, wealthy collectors celebrate yet another treasure possessed. It offers stark contrast to the wretched lives of mine pickers at the bottom of the supply chain, in a land far away..."
Source/publisher:
Aljazeera (101 East)
Date of publication:
2014-12-02
Date of entry/update:
2018-07-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
more
Description:
How a narcotics kingpin and his associates used opaque
company structures to take a dominant role in Myanmar?s
most valuable natural resource business.....SUMMARY: "Myanmar?s jade business may be
the biggest natural resource heist in
modern history. The sums of money
involved are almost incomprehensibly
high and the levels of accountability
are at rock bottom. One of the most
dominant and dangerous groups
involved is a collection of companies
controlled by Myanmar?s most
famous drug lord, Wei Hsueh Kang.
This report shows how Wei Hsueh
Kang and his associates, following
the template of terrorists, kleptocrats
and mafia the world over, have used
a web of opaque company structures
to build, and disguise, a jade empire.
..."
Source/publisher:
Global Witness
Date of publication:
2015-12-03
Date of entry/update:
2015-12-06
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
1.58 MB
Local URL:
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Description:
"...Myanmar?s jade industry may well be the biggest natural resource heist in
modern history. The sums of money involved are almost incomprehensibly
high and the level of accountability is at rock bottom. As long as the ghosts
of the military junta are allowed to dominate a business worth equivalent to
almost half the country?s GDP, it is difficult to envisage an end to the conflict
in Kachin State. Lessons from other nations afflicted by the resource curse,
as well as Myanmar?s own history, suggest that the threats to the country?s
wider political and economic stability are also very real...Since 2011, Myanmar?s rebranded
government has told the world it is
transitioning from a pariah state run
by a ruthless military dictatorship
to a civilian regime committed to
wholesale political and economic
reforms.
In important respects, there has been real
change. Oft-cited examples include the release of
Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners,
and the government?s peace talks with ethnic
armed groups. But in other critical areas, the
reformist narrative bears little scrutiny. Nowhere
is this truer than in the jade sector.
Drawing on over a year of investigations, this
report shows for the first time how a multi-billion
dollar trade in one of the planet?s most precious
gemstones is tightly controlled by the same military
elites, US-sanctioned drug lords and crony
companies that the government says it is consigning
to the past. Companies owned by the family of
former dictator Than Shwe and other notorious
figures are creaming off vast profits from the
country?s most valuable natural resource, and the
world?s finest supply of a stone synonymous with
glitz and glamour. Meanwhile, very few revenues
reach the people of Kachin State, the site of the
Hpakant jade mines, or the population of Myanmar
as a whole.
As the country approaches an historic election,
the importance of these findings to Myanmar?s
future is hard to overstate. Our investigations
show that the elites who between them have most
to lose from an open and fair future also have
ready access to a vast slush fund in the shape
of the jade sector. This raises urgent questions
for reformers and their international partners.
What is happening to all this jade money? Is it only
being spent on real estate, fast cars and lavish
parties, or is it being used for political purposes
as well?..."
Source/publisher:
Global Witness
Date of publication:
2015-10-23
Date of entry/update:
2015-10-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English, Kachin, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format :
pdf pdf pdf
Size:
5.14 MB 925.67 KB 2.2 MB
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Description:
" Locals involved in the gem trade have called for reform to the sector after an explosive new report into Burma?s jade industry.
Friday?s report, published by Global Witness, estimates the value of the country?s jade trade at US$31 billion in 2014—nearly half of the country?s gross domestic product. It claimed that most of the wealth from jade production flowed directly into the coffers of military conglomerates, well-connected firms and former junta figures, including the family of Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association secretary Tun Hla Aung said that the report was a stark reminder of the massive amounts of wealth that had been stripped from the country as a result of black market trade..."
Kyaw Hsu Mon
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2015-10-23
Date of entry/update:
2015-10-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"The Burma Army has ordered more than 1,000 Kachin villagers to leave three villages near the jade mining town of Hpakant, Kachin State, warning civilians that there be could fighting between the army and Kachin rebels soon, local sources said on Wednesday.
Residents of the villages of Kanzihall, Aung Bar Lay and Tang Kaw, located about 16 km (about 10 miles) from Hpakant, were told by Light Infantry Division 66 to leave their homes by Tuesday 6 pm, according to Hla San, a National League for Democracy (NLD) member based in Hpakant town..."
Lawi WAeng, May Kha
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2014-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2014-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
Gem traders in Mandalay are gearing up in opposition to a government plan to relocate Burma?s biggest jade and gem market.
Local traders, who have long opposed a relocation plan that would move them from downtown Mandalay to Amarapura, in the outskirts of the city, said they would submit a formal complaint to the divisional parliament while the issue is under debate by lawmakers.
?We will submit a complaint to the divisional parliament and request that the market be upgraded instead of moved, as we all wish,” said Than Win, a trader and chairman of a community committee advocating for renovation
Zarni Mann
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy"
Date of publication:
2014-12-15
Date of entry/update:
2014-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"More than 2,000 residents joined a protest on November 20 in Phakant, Kachin State, demanding greater autonomy for the state government to enable it to administer resource extraction in the state and improve security and living standards.
The protest is said to be connected with the death of a resident who was killed while solo gem mining on October 31 in Phakant with protesters saying that commercial mining provides no benefit for residents..."
Source/publisher:
"Eleven Media"
Date of publication:
2014-11-22
Date of entry/update:
2014-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"After a two-year suspension due to armed conflict in the area, jade mining has resumed in Kachin State?s Phakhant Township, but only large companies have re-entered the areas, local residents say..."
Source/publisher:
"Eleven"
Date of publication:
2014-10-07
Date of entry/update:
2014-12-21
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"NRGI recently commissioned images by a Myanmar photographer, Minzayar, who has documented the lives of the illegal jade miners flowing into Kachin state in the north of Myanmar as they pursue higher incomes...ade mining, both legal and illegal, is an apt lens through which to view the very complex environment in Myanmar, and the political economy of extractives in particular. It reveals the numerous governance challenges and failures that have prompted efforts at reforming the sector since the opening of the country a short time ago. Given its high value and its abundance in Myanmar, jade has been a significant source of revenue for the country?s government; according to official statistics jade exports amounted to more than $1 billion in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. However, reports suggest that the state budget might actually be missing potentially huge sums from jade mining. A Harvard Kennedy School report from 2013 even argued that government jade revenue should possibly be much higher than that from oil and gas, with at least 50 percent of jade revenues escaping taxation..."
Matthieu Salomon
Source/publisher:
Natural Resource Goverance Institute (NRGI)
Date of publication:
2014-10-17
Date of entry/update:
2014-12-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"As China grows, so does its appetite for jade. But the gemstone?s journey from Myanmar?s mines to China?s consumers follows a trail of addiction, infection and exploitation"....."MYITKYINA, Myanmar — At 16, the gem trader?s son set out for the jade mines to seek his fortune in the precious stone that China craves. But a month in, the teenager, Sang Aung Bau Hkum, was feeding his own addiction: heroin, the drug of choice among the men who work the bleak terrain of gouged earthen pits, shared needles and dwindling hope here in the jungles of northern Myanmar.
Three years later he finally found what he had come for — a jade rock ?as green as a summer leaf.” He spent some of the $6,000 that a Chinese trader paid him on a motorcycle, a cellphone and gambling.
?The rest disappeared into my veins,” he said, tapping the crook in his left arm as dozens of other gaunt miners in varying states of withdrawal passed the time at a rudimentary rehabilitation clinic here. ?The Chinese bosses know we?re addicted to heroin, but they don?t care. Their minds are filled with jade.”..."
Dan Levin (article); Jonah M. Kessel (video)
Source/publisher:
"New York Times"
Date of publication:
2014-12-01
Date of entry/update:
2014-12-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"Myanmar?s exports of the jade mined in northern Kachin State are estimated to be worth US$6-9 billion per year. But the government?s tax take is paltry and, as today?s New York Times article shows, the people of Kachin see few benefits. So where?s the money? And what can be done to ensure that it goes where it should? Myanmar?s exports of the jade mined in northern Kachin State are estimated to be worth US$6-9 billion per year. But the government?s tax take is paltry and, as today?s New York Times article shows, the people of Kachin see few benefits. So where?s the money? And what can be done to ensure that it goes where it should?
Answering these questions is critical both to the government?s efforts to tackle corruption and the prospects for a lasting peace in Kachin State, the scene of Myanmar?s most serious armed conflict..."
Mike Davis
Source/publisher:
Global Witness
Date of publication:
2014-12-02
Date of entry/update:
2014-12-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
"China?s jade obsession drives a multi-billion dollar black market that fuels a drug-infested jade mining industry....Gold is valuable but jade is priceless, so goes a Chinese saying. For centuries, the Chinese consider jade an imperial stone with mystical properties. Today it is coveted all over China as a status symbol, a collectible and an investment.
Demand from increasingly wealthy Chinese drives the value of jade through the roof. At this year?s Shanghai World Jewellery Expo, auctioneers put the opening bid for top grade jade items at more than $160 a gram, exceeding four times the price of gold.
Intricately designed pieces, made from top grade jade known as jadeite, are viewed as attractive investments despite the lack of scientific valuation methods. In recent years, jadeite has provided better returns than real estate.
But the imperial stone delivers a death sentence to treasure hunters in Myanmar, where China?s jadeite comes from.
Most of Myanmar?s raw jade enters a murky black market. Its official revenue from jade exports over from 2011 to 2014 was $1.3bn. But Harvard University?s Ash Center estimates total jade sales - including through unofficial channels - were $8bn in 2011 alone, suggesting most of the revenue does not go into government coffers.
The Myanmar government will not speak to us on camera. But our investigations reveal a corrupt senior government official who works with businessmen in the illegal trade of raw jade, including helping to falsify tax documents.
In northern Kachin state, we follow jade smugglers to the remote Hpakant mining town, the source of the world?s best jade. The men are part of the government?s border guard force. The officer in charge tells us how he pays off army and police commanders along the smuggling trail to China..."
Chan Tao Chou
Source/publisher:
Aljazeera (101 East)
Date of publication:
2014-11-28
Date of entry/update:
2014-11-30
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Burma: opium and heroin
Language:
English
more
Description:
This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in July 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Nyaunglebin District, during July 2012. It describes the Norwegian government?s plans for a development project in Kheh Der village tract, which is to support the villagers with their livelihood needs. In addition, the legislator of Kyauk Kyi Township, U Nyan Shwe, reported that he was going to undertake a stone-mining development project in the township, which led the Burmese government to order a company, U Paing, to go and test the stone in Maw Day village on July 1st, 2012. U Paing had left the area by the 8th of July due to safety concerns after a landmine explosion occurred in the near vicinity. Also described are villagers? fears to do with such projects, particularly in regards to environmental damage that could result from mining.
Source/publisher:
Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
Date of publication:
2012-09-05
Date of entry/update:
2012-11-05
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
263.01 KB
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Description:
"...Burmese jadeite is a global business predicated on human suffering and the absence of the rule of law, and is
controlled with an iron grip by Burma?s military regime. The regime led by Senior General Than Shwe grew in
notoriety in September 2007 when it violently suppressed peaceful protests led by Buddhist clergy in Burma. The
regime?s status as an international pariah was further cemented when it obstructed humanitarian aid to 2.4 million
people affected by Nargis, a class four cyclone that hit the Irrawaddy delta region on May 3, 2008, killing 150,000.
Burma?s regime has effectively consolidated military control over the entire gems industry, including jadeite, by
eliminating small and independent companies from mining and forcing all sales to go through national auctions
held by official government ministries in Rangoon. Gems are now Burma?s third largest export and provide the
regime with an important source of foreign currency1.
Much of this cash comes from China, which has recently seen a dramatic rise in demand for Burmese jadeite due
to its overall economic growth. On March 27, 2007, the Beijing Organizing Committee of the Games of the XXIX
Olympiad (BOCOG) announced that the design for the medals of the Beijing Games included jade from China?s
Qinghai province2. BOCOG has publicly stated that their officially licensed products are being made with Qinghai
jade (or nephrite), not jadeite from Burma. However, many if not most of the jade products on the general market
are from the abuse-ridden jadeite industry in Burma and profit Burma?s brutal military regime. The showcasing of
jade on the world stage will further escalate the growth in demand3.
Jadeite production comes at significant costs to the human rights and environmental security of the people living
in Kachin state. Land confiscation and forced relocation are commonplace and improper mining practices lead
to frequent landslides, floods, and other environmental damage. Conditions in the mines are deplorable, with
frequent accidents and base wages less than US$1 per day. An environment of impunity and violence has been
created by the military regime and its corporate partners, who inflict beatings on and even kill locals who are
caught collecting stones cast off as trash by the mining companies. Mining company bosses and local authorities
are complicit in a thriving local trade in drugs, which – when coupled with a substantial sex industry – has led to a
generalized HIV/AIDS epidemic that has spilled over the border into China.
While Burmese jadeite is only one part of China?s vast economic relationship to Burma?s military rulers, it is an
industry on which individuals can have a direct and substantial impact, if they make conscientious decisions not to
buy what can justifiably be called ?blood? jade...
The authors of this report call on individuals – global consumers, visitors to China, Olympic spectators, and Olympic
athletes – to boycott the sale of Burma?s blood jade. The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Games of the XXIX
Olympiad (BOCOG) and the government of the People?s Republic of China should take immediate action to curb
the global trade in blood jade, beginning by ending their promotion of jade products from Burma..."
Source/publisher:
8808 For Burma & All Kachin Students and Youth Union
Date of publication:
2008-08-04
Date of entry/update:
2010-07-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Campaigns
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
1.17 MB
Local URL:
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Description:
Burma verf?gt ?ber das weltweit gr??te Vorkommen von Rubinen. Unter unmenschlichen Bedingungen abgebaut, flie?en die Erl?se direkt in die Taschen des diktatorischen Regimes, egal ob offiziell exportiert oder illegal gehandelt. Boykott von Rubinen; Kimberley-Prozess; Boykott of Rubins, Kimberley-Process
Jolien Schure
Source/publisher:
Fatal Transactions - Eine europ?ische Kampagne zur Rohstoffgerechtigkeit
Date of publication:
2007-11-00
Date of entry/update:
2010-06-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade, Formal Sanctions
Language:
German, Deutsch
more
Description:
Burma?s Gem Trade and Human Rights Abuses
Updated July 2008
Burma produces a variety of gems but is most famous for its rubies and jade. The vast majority of high-quality rubies on the world market originate from Burma. Burmese rubies are renowned for their dark ?pigeon?s blood” color, which makes them more valuable than rubies produced elsewhere. According to industry estimates, Burma accounts for more than 90 percent of the global trade by value. Burma also dominates as the top producer of jadeite, the most expensive form of jade. Burma is especially well known for ?imperial jade,” a gem-quality jade that is valued highly for its deep green hue. In addition, Burma produces and exports a variety of other precious and semi-precious stones, including sapphires and spinel. The color and quality of gems from Burma make them attractive for use in jewelry sold around the world, but the beauty of Burmese gems is marred by their association with serious human rights abuses. A growing number of governments, ethically-minded businesses, and civil society groups are working to curtail the international trade in Burmese gems through targeted sanctions and boycott campaigns. There are signs that these efforts are having an effect.
Source/publisher:
Human Rights Watch
Date of publication:
2008-07-00
Date of entry/update:
2008-08-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems - mining and trade
Language:
English
more
Description:
Arten, Geschichte, Geologie von Mineralien in Mogok (Sagaing Division);types, history, geology of minerals in Mogok (Sagaing Division)
Source/publisher:
Mineralienatlas-Lexikon
Date of publication:
2007-12-07
Date of entry/update:
2008-05-10
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Sagaing Division, Gems - mining and trade
Language:
German, Deutsch
more
Description:
Allein der Handel mit Rubinen und anderen Edelsteinen habe der staatlichen Firma "Myanmar Gems Enterprise" nach offiziellen Angaben zwischen April 2006 und März 2007 Einnahmen in Höhe von 297 Millionen US-Dollars verschafft. Dreimal im Jahr lade Myanmar ausländische Händler zu Edelstein-Auktionen ein. Bei der letzten Versteigerung im März 2007 seien Steine im Wert von 185 Millionen US-Dollars umgesetzt worden. Damit sei die Ausfuhr von Edelsteinen neben dem Handel mit Teak-Holz sowie mit Erdöl und Erdgas, der bedeutendste Devisenbringer des Landes. Gemstones
Source/publisher:
Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker
Date of publication:
2007-10-15
Date of entry/update:
2008-05-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Economy: general, analytical, statistical (various sources), Gems - mining and trade, Gems
Language:
German, Deutsch
more
Description:
"?Capitalizing on Conflict? presents information illustrating how trade in timber, gems,
and gold is financing violent conflict, including widespread and gross human rights
abuses, in Burma. Although trade in these ?conflict goods? accounts for a small
percentage of the total global trade, it severely compromises human security and
undermines socio-economic development, not only in Burma, but throughout the
region.
Ironically, cease-fire agreements signed between the late 1980s and early 1990s
have dramatically expanded the area where businesses operate. While many
observers have have drawn attention to the political ramifications of these ceasefires,
little attention has been focused on the economic ramifications. These ceasefires,
used strategically by the military regime to end fighting in some areas and
foment intra-ethnic conflict in others and weaken the unity of opposition groups,
have had a net effect of increasing violence in some areas.
Capitalizing on Conflict focuses on two zones where logging and mining are both
widespread and the damage from these activities is severe... Both case
studies highlight the dilemmas cease-fire arrangements often pose for the local
communities, which frequently find themselves caught between powerful and
conflicting military and business interests. The information provides insights into the
conditions that compel local communities to participate in the unsustainable
exploitation of their own local resources, even though they know they are destroying
the very ecosystems they depend upon to maintain their way of life. The other
alternative — to stand aside and let outsiders do it and then be left with nothing — is
equally unpalatable..."
Table of Contents:
Map of Burma;
Map of Logging and Mining Areas;
Executive Summary;
Recommendations;
Part I: Context;
General Background on Cease-fires;
Conflict Trade and Burma;
Part II: Logging Case Study;
Background on the Conflict;
Shwe Gin Township (Pegu Division);
Papun Districut (Karen State);
Reported Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts;
Part III: Mining Case Study;
Background on the Conflict;
Mogok (Mandalay Division);
Shwe Gin Township (Pegu Division);
Reported Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts;
Conclusion.
Ken MacLean
Source/publisher:
EarthRights International (ERI), Karen Environnmental & Social Action Network (KESAN)
Date of publication:
2003-10-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-11-07
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Gems, Minerals and Mining - Burma (general articles and analyses), Gems - mining and trade, Deforestation
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
939.97 KB
Local URL:
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Description:
"More than a million miners desperately excavate the bedrock of a remote valley hidden in the shadows of the Himalayas. They are in search of just one thing - jadeite, the most valuable gemstone in the world. But with wages paid in pure heroin and HIV rampant, the miners are paying an even higher price. Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark travel to the death camps of Burma...Hpakant is Burma's black heart, drawing hundreds of thousands of people in with false hopes and pumping them out again, infected and broken. Thousands never leave the mines, but those who make it back to their communities take with them their addiction and a disease provincial doctors are not equipped to diagnose or treat. The UN and WHO have now declared the pits a disaster zone, but the military regime still refuses to let any international aid in..." jade
Adrian Levy & Cathy Scott-Clark
Source/publisher:
The Observer (London)
Date of publication:
2001-11-11
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
html
Size:
25.12 KB
Local URL:
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