Myanmar
jade mine landslide kills around 100
Death toll soars after disaster hits people scavenging
through a mountain of waste rubble in search of Myanmar’s most valuable stone
About 100 people have been killed in a
landslide as they picked through mountains of waste rubble in a remote mining
area of northern Myanmar searching for precious jade, state
media has reported.
Those killed were thought to have been
mainly itinerant miners, who make a living scavenging through mountains of
waste rubble dumped by mechanical diggers used by mining firms at the center of
a secretive multibillion-dollar industry in the restive Kachin state.
Saturday’s massive landslide crushed dozens
of shanty huts clustered on the barren landscape and which were home to an
unconfirmed number of people.
The disaster happened at about 3.30am local
time (9pm GMT) and lasted just a couple of minutes, according to Zaw Moe Htet,
a local gems trader whose village overlooks the devastated area in the Hpakant
mining area.
“Even people living in villages further away
could hear the cries of those who rushed to the scene,” he said.
Video footage of the area shot on Saturday
shows men carrying several bodies slung in blankets watched by a crowd of local
people in a dusty plain near the village of Sai Tung.
Nilar Myint, an official from the local
administrative authorities in Hpakant, said rescue teams have so far found 97
people killed in the landslide.
Landslides are
a common hazard in the area as people living off the industry’s waste pick
their way across perilous mounds under cover of darkness, driven by the hope
they might find a chunk of jade worth thousands of dollars.
Scores have been killed this year alone as
local people say the mining companies, many of which are linked to the
country’s junta-era military elite, increase their operations in Kachin.
Myanmar is the source of virtually all of
the world’s finest jadeite, a translucent green stone that is prized above
almost all other materials in neighboring China.
In an October report, advocacy group Global
Witness estimated that the value of jade produced in 2014 alone was $31bn
(£20.4bn), the equivalent of nearly half the country’s GDP.
But that figure is about 10 times the
official $3.4bn sales of the precious stone last year, in an industry that has
long been shrouded in secrecy with much of the best jade thought to be smuggled
directly to China.
Local people in Hpakant complain of a
litany of abuses associated with the mining industry, including the frequency
of accidents and land confiscations.
The area has been turned into a moonscape
of environmental destruction as huge diggers gouge the earth looking for jade.
Itinerant miners are drawn from all parts
of Myanmar by the promise of riches and become easy prey for drug addiction in
Hpakant, where heroin and methamphetamine are cheaply available on the streets.
“Industrial-scale mining by big companies
controlled by military families and companies, cronies and drug lords has made
Hpakant a dystopian wasteland where locals are literally having the ground cut
from under their feet,” said Mike Davis of Global Witness, calling for
companies to be held accountable for accidents.
The group wants the jade industry, which
has long been the subject of US sanctions, to be part of the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global scheme designed to increase
transparency around natural resource management.
Vocabulary:
1. moonscape月球表面
2. dystopian反烏托邦
3. transparency透明度
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/22/at-least-30-killed-in-landslide-at-myanmar-jade-mine
沒有留言:
張貼留言