The Human Rights Council, the inter-governmental body within the United Nations system, responsible for the promotion and protection of people subject to violation of their basic rights across the world, set up in March 2017 a Fact-Finding Mission to establish the circumstances of alleged recent human rights violations and abuses by military and security forces, mostly but not only related to Rohingya persecution, in Myanmar. The mission produced 6 reports in both Burmese and English.
One of these reports, released in August 2019, explicitly titled “UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar exposes military business ties, calls for targeted sanctions and arms embargoes”, provides various information proving the use of violence from the Tatmadaw, the Myanmar military, in many fields of the economy they are involved in, including mining, a sector accounting for 6% of the GDP, 20% of the national revenue and 47.6% of all exports.
Mining of jade and ruby, respectively in Kachin and Shan states, contributes significantly to Myanmar mining industry through two companies involved in a variety of businesses (pharmaceutics, manufacturing, insurance, tourism, banking): Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), described in the report as opaque enterprises, both owned and influenced by senior military leaders. The mission has also identified several MEHL subsidiaries operating in the ruby mines in Mong Hsu, Shan State, under Tatmadaw’s control. For instance the wholly owned ruby mining subsidiary of MEHL, Myanmar Ruby Enterprise, has at least other 16 subsidiaries carrying out ruby mining. In addition to this, MEHL and MEC, in a quite complicate architecture, “act as unofficial gatekeepers for private companies seeking access to ruby mining plots and licenses”.
The UN mission identified around 60 foreign companies involved in joint ventures or with commercial ties to the Tatmadaw, so creating pressure resulting in new international restrictions and withdrawal of companies from collaboration with the involved companies.
The UN report explicitly describes the degree to which the Country’s military uses its own businesses, including gemstones, along with arms deals, to support “brutal operations” against ethnic groups.
“The Mission concludes on reasonable grounds that the Tatmadaw’s business and military interests in the jade and ruby extractive industries benefited from and directly contributed to international human rights violations in conflict-affected areas in Kachin State. The Mission has a similar concern with respect to Shan State, due to the existence of hostilities in that state. The Tatmadaw has used forced labour to increase mining revenue and has used mining areas as staging grounds for abductions, forced labour, sexual violence and murder. The perpetration of these serious violations suggests that civilians, in particular women, living and working in mining areas are at a particularly high risk of experiencing sexual violence by the Tatmadaw. Many of the human rights violations the Mission documented are also violations of international humanitarian law and some rise to the level of war crimes, due to their association with non-international armed conflict”.
The UN Mission, chaired by Marzuki Darusman, lawyer and human rights campaigner and former Attorney-General of Indonesia, encourages investors to engage with businesses that are not affiliated with the military and quotes Tiffany & Co. as “an example of a company that demonstrated a sensitivity to this responsibility when it reported publicly on its decision to ‘go above and beyond government regulations’ after the lifting of U.S. sanctions in 2016, and not purchase gemstones from Myanmar since the 2003 U.S. Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, which was adopted due to the severity of human rights violations in Myanmar”.
The effectiveness of the restrictions has been questioned – it should be recalled – by many commentators, as most of the Burmese rubies have joined the international markets after being cut and manufactured in Thailand. The development of Myanmar’s mining industry seems to depend more than anything on Bangkok for rubies and Beijing for jade and it remains to be seen to what extent Thailand and China will respond to the request for diligence highlighted with words of alarm by Radhika Coomaraswamy, member of the Mission: “Given the extent of Tatmadaw involvement in jade and ruby mining in northern Myanmar, businesses and consumers should conduct heightened due diligence to ensure that they are not purchasing, selling, trading or otherwise using gems produced or sold by enterprises owned or influenced by the Tatmadaw”, said Mission Expert Radhika Coomaraswamy.
Gem News published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review #8, Winter 2019
