Thread: Myanmar Team Probing Jade Mine Disaster Disappoints Local Villagers

A Myanmar government team sent to the jade-rich Hpakant area of Kachin state to investigate a deadly mine landslide barely sought local input during a brief tour of the disaster zone, disappointed residents said Monday.


Heavy rains caused piles of loose dirt and rubble to collapse on July 2, killing at least 200 scavengers looking for discarded pieces of jade left behind by miners and creating “lake of mud” full of bodies with some still missing.


A six-member team investigative body led by Ohn Win, Myanmar’s minister for natural resources and environmental conservation, was appointed the day after the disaster to look into the cause of the latest of many accidents to hit the gemstone industry.


The team visited the site in northern Myanmar from July 4-6 with Kachin state officials. They paid the families of each dead scavenger compensation of 500,000 kyats (U.S. $361) and paid 300,000 kyats (U.S. $217) to relatives of each injured miner.


But U Pannita, a monk from Wai Khar village, said the investigators barely spent any time on the ground collecting information from locals in Hpakant, home to some 500,000 scavengers from across Myanmar.


“They didn’t go the places where the landslide occurred to see the people who are facing many problems here,” he told RFA.


Other residents also said they worried the team would return to the capital without learning the real causes of the landslide because they didn’t speak with those who experienced or observed it.


Thant Zin, chairman of the Thukha Lin Pyae Charity Clinic, said Union and state officials should have spoken first with local authorities, people, and experts.


“Locals didn’t have a chance to tell them the true situation of what happened,” he told RFA.


“They may have had some difficulty traveling here and there as well as a lack of time, but when they visit problem places like this, they won’t know the truth.”


Thant Zin did not elaborate on what he wanted the investigators to know.


Dangerous location


Groups that monitor resource extraction in Myanmar say that Hpakant, the world’s largest jadeite mine, suffers from being in a conflict zone since a ceasefire ended in 2011, with central government authority challenged by militias, criminal groups smuggling drugs and jade and other shady operators.


Daung Zay, administrator of Hapkant’s ward No. 6, said the members of the investigative team told local officials to inform residents they should not live in the area and ask them to move out.


I don’t understand them,” he said. “It’s difficult for people to move their entire household.”


“What they should have done is help people move from the dangerous areas and make [alternative] arrangements for them during the moving period.”


H La Aung, Kachin state’s minister for natural resources and environmental conservation, told RFA that the team members didn’t meet with many locals on account of COVID-19 guidelines that restrict gatherings, though they met with victims’ families and community leaders.


RFA could not reach Win Myat Aye, Union minister for social welfare relief and resettlement who is a member of the investigative team, for comment.


No one from President Win Myint’s office’s responded to questions submitted by RFA as of late Monday.


Myanmar’s military said on July 5 that it took action against Kachin state’s security and border affairs minister and an officer in charge of a military unit over the latest landslide, demoting them to their former positions after deeming them responsible for the disaster.


On Monday, Tint Soe, a lawmaker representing Hpakant constituency in Kachin state, called for one-minute of silence in parliament to remember those who lost their lives in the landslide, the latest in a series of such accidents that kill hundreds each year.


Residents move out


As of Friday, more than 30 households from wards Nos. 2 and 6 and from Wai Khar village began leaving of their own accord to seek shelter in the homes of relatives, fearing more deadly landslides if they remained.


Local authorities started inspecting houses in villages where possible landslides could occur.


“Authorities are checking the dangerous places, such as Lone Kin, Saik Mu, and Wai Khar,” Soe Tint said, adding that signboards warning residents would be put up.


“If needed, we will take action against people who violate the orders,” he said.


Some houses high above a cliff adjacent to the accident site are at risk, said Shwe Thein, chairman of Hpakant’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party.


“It is very dangerous,” he told RFA on Friday. “I did not even dare to look down.”


Local villagers told RFA that heavy machines that remove soil from underneath villages during mining operations leave residents sitting on land above huge holes.


“A house in Lagu Chaung lost its garage and toilet from a landslide,” said Htan Tike who lives in ward No. 6.


“The rest of the house has got cracks. All of it will collapse soon,” he added.


Hpakant administrator Nyan Lin Aung told RFA said he asked the Natural Disaster Management Committee to help people who have evacuated their homes.


The township administration department, Myanmar Gems and Jewelry Entrepreneurs Association, and community leaders will also help them, he added.

Myanmar Team Probing Jade Mine Disaster Disappoints Local Villagers

Jade Scavengers Keep Working in Myanmar’s Hpakant, Despite Deadly Hazards


Hundreds of migrant jade prospectors continue to scour slag heaps for pieces of the precious gemstone amid dangerous conditions during the monsoon season in Myanmar’s Hpakant mining area, despite a deadly mudslide that killed roughly 200 scavengers in early July.


Heavy rains triggered the collapse of huge piles of muddy waste known as tailings in the mineral-rich region of Kachin state on July 2 and created a “lake of mud” full of bodies of scavengers who handpicked jadestones in abandoned mining projects.


At least 300,000 men and women in the Hpakant area rely on scavenging to eke out a living, with most of the pieces they find exported illegally to jade markets in neighboring China, where demand for the gemstone is high.


Those who narrowly escaped the early July disaster said they must continue scavenging to make a living, though the risk of additional deadly mudslides remains high amid torrential rains that saturate the country from late May to October.


“For us, the poor laborers, we cannot have our own mining plots, [so] we have to scavenge wherever we can whenever we have the chance,” said Kyaw Soe, 28, who survived the mine landslide that occurred near Hpakant’s Wai Khar village.


Mine owners and local officials prohibit amateur prospectors from searching for jade in areas where large stones are found, he said.


“The owners of the mines don’t let us come near the plots if they contain valuable jadestones,” Kyaw Soe said. “If we do find any valuable jadestones, they seize them from us.”


“Both the government and Kachin ethnic groups have ordered seizures if we find large jadestones,” he added. “It’s not possible to take the large stones out of the mines.”


Several ethnic armed organizations as well as Myanmar’s powerful military have financial interests in jade mining, making money through both formal and informal investments in mining and trading companies.


Most privately owned jade mining companies temporarily cease operations during the monsoon season, presenting a good opportunity for scavengers, or yemase as they are known locally, to dig around for bits of the stone, Kyaw Soe said.


Some jade scavengers must hand over any pieces they find to their bosses who arrange their accommodations in Hpakant and divvy up the proceeds from sales of the stones, while others operate entirely on their own.

Impervious to risk
The Myanmar government issued jade mining licenses during the 2015-16 fiscal year that covered more than 32,000 acres, an area equivalent to 24,000 football pitches, according to a December 2018 report on jade mines in the Southeast Asia country by the New York-based Natural Resource Governance Institute.


Such a vast area gives scavengers wide swathes of mining plots to scour, so that when one operation closes, they can easily move to another.


The prospects of finding valuable jadestones and securing huge amounts of money to start a business at home draw thousands of impoverished people from across Myanmar to Hpakant with their families or friends.


Besides the dangers of deadly landslides, they also must navigate Hpakant’s lack of rule of law as well as rampant drug abuse, with some scavengers becoming users themselves.


Despite the deaths of friends and relatives in landslides, many prospectors said they stay in the business in hopes of finding a haul that will change their lives for the better.


Htay Myint from northern Myanmar’s Sagaing region said his destitution has made him impervious to risking his life to landslides or floods while combing through piles of rubble during the monsoon season.


“The flooding can drag people away since jade collectors look for the pieces of jadestone along the water flow,” he told RFA. “This is very perilous. I fear the risks, but poverty has driven me to come here.”


“I don’t have a choice, so I have remained here,” he added.


Arrests made


A day after the landslide, President Win Myint appointed a six-member investigative body led by Ohn Win, Myanmar’s minister for natural resources and environmental conservation, to look into the causes of the latest of many accidents to hit the gemstone industry.


Ohn Win told local media that “greedy” miners were to blame, prompting criticism of his lack of empathy for impoverished freelance prospectors who work in an industry with weak oversight and regulations.


“The regulatory organization which is in charge of rules and regulations for jade mines is mainly responsible for preventing these kinds of accidents. This organization is formed by the government,” Hanna Hindstrom, senior campaigner for Myanmar at the NGO Global Witness, told RFA.


In the wake of the July mine landslide, Kachin state’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation said that three of 13 jade mining business owners who ran illegal scavenging activities had been arrested under Section 50(a) of Myanmar’s Gemstone Law, passed in 2019 to govern mining activities.


The Myanmar military, which maintains order and security in Hpakant, demoted Kachin state’s security and border affairs minister and an officer in charge of a military unit to their former positions after deeming them responsible for the disaster.


RFA could not reach military spokesmen on Friday for further comment.

Jade Scavengers Keep Working in Myanmar’s Hpakant, Despite Deadly Hazards