November 23, 2015•Update: November 27, 2015
By Joshua Carroll
YANGON, Myanmar
The official death toll in what could be Myanmar’s most deadly landslide for a decade has risen to over a hundred, state media reported Monday.
The landslide buried dozens of huts Saturday near jade mines in Hpakant, northern Myanmar, leaving at least 104 people dead and dozens still missing as of Sunday evening, the Global New Light of Myanmar said.
“We don’t know how many more bodies could still be under the rubble,” Capt. Naing Win, head of the township police office, told The Myanmar Times on Sunday.
Hpakant is a major source of high quality jade that is feeding relentless demand across the border in China.
The workers in the mining town are largely internal migrants, who sift through the rubble dumped by jade mining companies in search of overlooked fragments of the precious gem.
Officials say they are not yet sure why the large pile of debris created by dumping from nearby mines gave way Saturday.
But collapses in Hpakant -- where the industry faces little regulation -- are common: nine died in a smaller landslide there in March.
Global Witness, a non-profit group that campaigns against environmental crimes, has branded Myanmar’s shady jade industry a massive natural resource “heist”.
Last month the group estimated that corrupt military officials, cronies and drug lords controlled an industry worth at least $31 billion in 2014.
“Big firms licenced by the government are making a killing,” said Mike Davis, Asia director at Global Witness.
“They are grabbing jade worth tens or hundreds of millions a year, while leaving locals and migrant workers to run the gauntlet of deadly landslides caused by the companies’ reckless dumping practices.”
