Smuggling Away Myanmar's Chance for Peace

Jun 1, 2017 | Tom Fawthrop
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A government-led peace process aimed at ending 60 years of civil war has little chance of success, according to civil society groups, until the government comes to grips with a multi-billion dollar jade smuggling industry that fuels conflict in resource-rich ethnic regions in northern Myanmar.

The Ethnic Nationalities Affairs Center (ENAC), a local research group, called for “greater government emphasis on the possession, management, share of revenues, and impact of the country’s natural resources” during the latest, six-day round of the “21st Panglong Peace Conference,” which concluded May 30 in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital.

The Kachin and other ethnic groups signed the original Panglong Treaty with General Aung San, who led the country’s independence struggle from British colonial rule. The 1947 treaty guaranteed equal rights for all ethnic groups within a Federal Union of Burma.