Two jade scavengers lost their lives when a waste soil dump operated by Shwe Thura Pan Company collapsed on the evening of June 20 at a jade mining site in Maw Shan Kone village, Hpakant Township, Kachin State. The victims, identified as Ko Zaw Aung and Ko Ar San from Seik Mu village, had left for jade scavenging around 6 PM on June 20. When they failed to return, a search party discovered their floating raft at the site of the landslide, confirming their deaths under the collapsed soil dump.
With the assistance of a backhoe from a local company, search efforts recovered one body on the evening of June 21, while the search for the second victim continues. According to a local resident, the recovered body was damaged during the excavation process with the backhoe, resulting in the recovery of only the torso without the head. The area had experienced continuous rainfall for approximately five days prior to the incident, and the collapsed waste dump was an old one located on the road leading to Moekar village.
Currently, following the military council’s entry into Hpakant Township, many mining operations have been suspended as machinery has been confiscated due to the burning and destruction of equipment at various mining sites by the council. However, some areas remain accessible to manual jade scavengers. The Hpakant region has a history of deadly landslides, with the worst incident occurring in 2020 at the Hwekha mining site, where more than 190 people lost their lives.
According to a 2023 report by the UK-based human rights organization Global Witness, nearly 400,000 people from various parts of Myanmar are engaged in jade scavenging activities in the Hpakant region, working under hazardous conditions with minimal safety measures. These workers continue their dangerous pursuit despite the significant risks, highlighting the desperate economic situations that drive people to such perilous work in Myanmar’s jade mining sector.
