A landslide occurred Thursday, July 2, in the jade mines of northern Burma, according to the fire service in the State of Kachin. “The miners have been swept away by a torrent of mud caused by significant rainfall” monsoon. “So far, we have found a total of 113” of the body, have written to the fire brigade on their page Facebook official, where photos showing a team of rescuers wading through a valley submerged by the mudslide, in the township of Hpakant, near the chinese border, have been published. The research had to be suspended due to the torrential rain, said the local police.
Industry is little regulated
Each year, dozens of miners in search of precious stones are killed in accidents due to working conditions dangerous, particularly in monsoon period. Very prosperous but little-regulated, the mining industry employs many workers that are not declared, and weighs several tens of billions of dollars, according to the NGO Watchdog Global Witness. The jade mines to open sky of Hpakant have transformed this remote region into a vast field, reminiscent of a lunar landscape.
The landslide fatalities in the region are infrequent, and victims are often from ethnic communities and disadvantaged that are operating quasi-illegally in old mines abandoned. The abundant natural resources of northern Burma, including the jade, the precious wood, gold and amber – help to fund both sides of a civil war which lasted several decades between the rebels of the ethnic kachin and the burmese military.
