Myanmar: The Jade Scramble: Life at the Bottom of the Mines

Sep 26, 2018 | Libby Hogan, Democratic Voice of Burma
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The fruits of the jade trade are mostly enjoyed by Burmese and Chinese businessmen, the military elite and ethnic armed groups. Few profits return to the Kachin people who live in the land where the jade is found — Hpakant, Kachin State, in northern Myanmar. Three years since a landmark investigation by watchdog group, Global Witness, that revealed the industry’s worth US 31 billion dollars, questions still abound about what improvements have been made by Aung San Suu Kyi’s government to share those revenues and stop jade being smuggled across the border into China.