Rescuers worked all day to extract bodies from a mud lake (Reuters)
Hpakant:
The battered bodies of more than 160 jade miners were pulled from a sea of mud after a landslide in northern Myanmar on Thursday, after one of the worst accidents ever in the treacherous industry.
Dozens of people die each year while working in the country’s lucrative but poorly regulated jade trade, which uses poorly paid migrant workers to scrape off a much-coveted gem in China.
The disaster struck after heavy rains shelled the surface mines near the Chinese border in Kachin State, where billions of dollars of jade are said to be scoured each year on a bare hillside.
A slice of mountain collapsed, sending a swirling torrent of mud into an aquamarine-colored lake of my sewage as the workers climbed uphill.
“There are so many people floating in the water,” said a passerby.
Dozens “were suffocated by a wave of mud,” said the Myanmar fire service in a Facebook article.
Rescuers, including firefighters and local police, worked all day to remove the bodies from a lake of mud in a continuous deluge of heavy monsoon rains.
“At 7:15 p.m., 162 bodies were found,” the department said, adding that 54 people had been injured and sent to neighboring hospitals.
Bodies of miners covered in mud and bloodied were arranged in sinister rows under tarpaulins, shoes missing because of the force of the mud wall which had struck them.
A woman mourned the victims recovered while the rescuers held her.
Working through a torrent of heavy rain was a challenge, said police superintendent Than Win Aung, as it could trigger another mine collapse on the shaky ground.
“We can’t dig and find the bodies buried underwater … so we’re just picking up the floating corpses,” he told AFP, adding that the rescue efforts will be even more hindered at dusk.
The workers were looking for precious stones on the sharp mountainous terrain of the canton of Hpakant, where the furrows of previous excavations had already loosened the ground.
The victims apparently defied a warning not to work the mines during the monsoon rains, local police told AFP.
The United Nations in Myanmar has declared itself “deeply saddened by the terrible loss of life”.
Chinese demand
Myanmar is one of the largest sources of jadeite in the world and the industry is largely driven by the insatiable demand for translucent green gem from neighboring China.
Mines are mired in secrecy, although environmental watchdog Global Witness says the operators are linked to former junta figures, the military elite and their friends.
He said the landslide should serve as a “wake-up call” to the Myanmar government led by Aung San Suu Kyi – whose party has promised to reform and eradicate corruption.
The watchdog estimated that the industry was worth some $ 31 billion in 2014, although very little reached the state coffers.
The mine where the accident occurred on Thursday belongs to the company Yadanar Kyay, according to the army’s official website.
Police said the death toll could have been even higher if authorities had not warned people to stay away from the mines the previous day.
Landslides in the region are frequent, especially during the notoriously severe monsoon of Myanmar, and a major landslide in November 2015 killed more than 100 people.
Another last year buried more than 50 workers.
Workers who paint across the ground often come from poor ethnic minority communities who are looking for leftovers left by big companies.
Poor quality stones can be exchanged for food or sold for $ 20 to pending brokers.
But workers risk their lives every day hoping to hit the jackpot – good quality jadeite that could make tens of thousands of dollars and change their lives.
The abundant natural resources of northern Myanmar – including jade, wood, gold and amber – are helping to finance both sides of a decades-long civil war between ethnic Kachin insurgents and the military.
The struggle to control mines and income frequently traps local civilians in the middle.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
