Myanmar military controls lucrative jade industry

Myanmar's coup has handed total control of the country's lucrative jade industry to the military junta, giving them new financial clout to cement their hold on power and threatening fresh instability along its border with China, a new report said on Tuesday.

The jade mines, located around Hpakant in remote Kachin State, are the richest in the world.

But instead of an asset, swelling the national coffers, they've long been a source of corruption, power and conflict, centered on the military but also involving other armed groups.

The civilian government of Aung Sa Suu Kyi tried to clean up the industry.

According to the report, by rights group Global Witness, the coup has swept all that away.

Now, it says, the military – known as the Tatmadaw - has total control over who can mine and who can't. It can now dole out licenses as rewards and lures, so shoring up its domestic position at a critical time.

One of the report's authors, Keel Dietz told the Associated Press that the Tatmadaw "can give out licenses to buy loyalty" and to try to break apart their enemies.

The coup is also upsetting Kachin State's ever-fragile stability.

There's been an ongoing war between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army in parts of the territory, but Hpakant has been off-limits. Its jade's so valuable that both sides have actually cooperated to share its wealth, Global Witness say.

Now fighting has broken out even in the mining areas, threatening what Dietz calls a "disaster" along the border with China, potentially disrupting economic activity, promoting criminality and creating streams of refugees from a country struggling to control the coronavirus.

Global Witness is calling for the international community to immediately ban the import of all jade and gemstones mined in Myanmar as part of a strategy to cut financial flows to the military junta.