Since 2011, Myanmar’s rebranded
government has told the world it is transitioning from a pariah state run by a
ruthless military dictatorship to a civilian regime committed to wholesale
political and economic reforms. In important respects, there has been real
change.
Oft-cited examples include the release
of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and the government’s peace
talks with ethnic armed groups. But in other critical areas, the reformist
narrative bears little scrutiny. Nowhere is this truer than in the jade sector.
Drawing on over a year of
investigations, this report shows for the first time how a multi-billion dollar
trade in one of the planet’s most precious gemstones is tightly controlled by
the same military elites, US-sanctioned drug lords and crony companies that the
government says it is consigning to the past.
Companies owned by the family of former dictator Than Shwe and other
notorious figures are creaming off vast profits from the country’s most
valuable natural resource, and the world’s finest supply of a stone synonymous
with glitz and glamour. Meanwhile, very few revenues reach the people of Kachin
State, the site of the Hpakant jade mines, or the population of Myanmar as a
whole.
As the country approaches an historic
election, the importance of these findings to Myanmar’s future is hard to
overstate. Our investigations show that the elites who between them have most
to lose from an open and fair future also have ready access to a vast slush
fund in the shape of the jade sector.