Myanmar: How Jade, the Precious Stone, Is Funding Ethnic Conflicts in Myanmar

Jul 24, 2017 | Angshuman Choudhury, WIONews
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Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a country with many names. Yet, ‘land of jade’ remains the most evocative of all, at least for the distant observer. But, behind this otherwise benign sobriquet, thrives a murky world of exploitation and high-handed subversion.  A seminal 12 months-long investigation by the British NGO, Global Witness (GW), reveals the nasty face of Myanmar’s jade mines: slush-filled, begrimed stretches of uneven land dotted with diminishing rocky hills, rumbling heavy machinery, and armed personnel in military fatigues. Very tellingly, Burma’s jade is a gem shackled in the unenviable politics of blood and corruption, not unlike the diamonds of Africa.