Jade and the Generals

As Myanmar gears up for  national peace talks, our new film reveals how the jade riches of Kachin State are helping to incentivise and fuel deadly armed conflict. Never before seen footage and interviews reveal the fear and destruction wrought by the powerful elites who came to control the multi-billion dollar mines during the days of military dictatorship.

Under Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the new civilian-led government has started to take action on the dirty jade trade but there is a long way to go. Upcoming peace talks offer a crucial opportunity to put the country’s natural resources on a new footing, and move closer to a lasting end to the ethnic conflicts which have caused so much suffering.

Watch the film to find out more – then share.

The film is also available on YouTube and Vimeo

Kachin’s cursed treasure

The film focuses on Kachin State in the north of Myanmar, home to the most valuable jade mines on the planet, and the site of some of the country’s worst ethnic armed conflict.

Since fighting in Kachin State resumed in 2011, 100,000 people have been driven from their homes and countless lives have been destroyed.

Local communities are calling for an end to the fighting and reform of the trade that is driving it. To find out more about the impact on local lives, and the steps needed to break the links between jade and conflict, see our multimedia photo story, Cursed Treasure.

To achieve peace the government must remove a key incentive for the fighting. The jade mines of Kachin State need to be managed in the interests of its people, not the men with guns.

See a joint statement signed by over 135 civil society members : Myanmar peace talks must address natural resource management

Please support their calls and help ensure the peace talks urgently focus on the role natural resources and jade plays in incentivising and fuelling conflict, by exposing the links between jade and the generals.

Watch and share our new film: Jade and the Generals on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/GlobalWitness/videos/1394028203991830/