The Myanmar Junta's ban on jade mining is aimed against resistance funding

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

According to Colonel Naw Bu, the Kachin Independence Army's (KIA) media officer, the Myanmar military regime's recent order suspending all jade mining in Kachin State was issued with the goal of exerting pressure on the ethnic armed organisation.

In the March 31 issues of the regime's newspapers, Myanma Gems Enterprise, a state-owned company under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, announced that jade mining in Lone Khin, Hpakant, Maw Lu, and Maw Han would be prohibited in order to preserve the country's valuable resources for future generations, as well as the environment and the safety of jade miners.

 

The KIA is still debating how to respond to Kachin's ban on jade mining.
In the meanwhile, it will wait to see how the government would deal with enterprises that do not follow the directive.

"We'll have to wait and see."
Hpakant is home to many people from all around Myanmar.
As a result, their order will only harm the people, and we shall see if the miners obey their orders.
"I believe the prohibition would exacerbate the problem," Col. Naw Bu said, alluding to the negative impact on the hundreds of thousands of people employed there and the many more who work in the jade sector.

According to a Kachin State jade miner, the KIA collects taxes from the majority of the state's jade mining enterprises.

 

"The KIA controls the majority of the jade mines in this area.
Even military-affiliated businesses are required to pay taxes to the armed force.
As a result, [the dictatorship] does not want others to profit from [mine] when it is unable to do so.
It believes that earnings from jade mines would go to the resistance movement, therefore it's trying to sabotage the industry," he explained.

The KIA, which is fighting for more autonomy in Kachin State, relies heavily on jade as a source of revenue.
The trade has also been the source of long-running conflicts between the KIA and Myanmar's military, which have fought for control of jade income for decades.

 

Since the military dictatorship's overthrow last year, the armed group has publicly opposed it, and it has also trained and armed local resistance groups opposing the regime, commonly known as the People's Defense Force (PDF).