Burmese jade traders are fleeing military government forces and avoiding rebel attacks in order to sell a declining number of green gems, because the multi-billion dollar industry lost its luster in the months after the coup.
Since the coup in February, the Southeast Asian country has been in chaos, with the military trying to suppress widespread democratic protests and a crisis-ridden economy.
Fighting around the Pagan jade mine (the largest mine in the world) in northern Kachin State has squeezed excavation work that has been hampered by the pandemic, reducing the supply of one of the country's most profitable exports.
Myanmar is the world's largest producer of jade, and the industry is mainly driven by the insatiable demand for this translucent gemstone from neighboring China.
Most of the stones pass through Mandalay, the second largest city, where there is a 23-meter (75-foot) high Kyauksen stupa, a Buddhist shrine built with thousands of kilograms of precious stones.
Now the complex is very quiet, with only a few believers praying in front of the glittering turquoise and red domes.
"Business is not good at all," said a jade trader who closed the main jade market due to the pandemic and turmoil. He spent several months trying to sell his gems on the roadside in Mandalay.
"Sometimes, when soldiers come to patrol, people will panic and they will run... If one person runs, the others will start running. Then the soldiers fired warning shots to control the situation."
-'Your life is in danger'-
Two days later, the market reopened, and the authorities again began to collect fees-one of many fees levied on gemstones to fund the decades-long civil war between armed nations and the military.
According to the watchdog Global Witness, it is “almost impossible” to buy Burmese jade without funding the military and its allies.
Generals often appear in public sports rings studded with high-quality jade. With the widespread and often violent resistance to generals, working with the stones faces new dangers.
"If you continue to do your trading business... we strongly warn that your life is in danger," in a notice issued by the local dissident group Generation Z Power a few days before the market reopened. Write.
A week after the traders returned, a bomb exploded near the market. Although there were no casualties, the same organization promised that if people continue to trade there, it will detonate more people.
Despite the threat, the market is regaining its former prosperity.
A man sits at a small table in the camp, checks a fist-sized rock with a flashlight, and speaks to a smartphone in Mandarin.
Due to the pandemic and sporadic border fighting, Beijing has closed its border with Myanmar, but demand remains huge—Chinese buyers are using the riots to bargain.
A 62-year-old dealer who did not want to be named said: “Due to Covid and the political situation, their prices are very low.”
"But we have no choice. The market needs them. If they don't buy or we don't sell, we have no place to rely on this business," he added.
"Prices are falling," said Myo Min Zaw, who also wandered around hotels frequented by Chinese buyers in months outside the market in search of a sale.
"A stone worth 1 million U.S. dollars (550 U.S. dollars) now only sells for about 500,000 U.S. dollars."
According to Global Witness, before the coup, 70% to 90% of all the jade mined in Pagan was smuggled to China and never entered the official system of Myanmar.
Hanna Hindstrom, a senior Myanmar activist for the organization, said that since the coup, as the fighting around the mine has intensified, it has become harder to find people from the dark world.
She said: “We heard that as demand is strong and supply decreases, prices in China have risen.” Competition between rebel groups and military militias has become increasingly fierce, hoarding high-quality jade in shopping malls.
For Thandar, who runs a small jade bead workshop on the other side of the Mandalay River, selling her ordinary goods to local customers has become even more dangerous.
"We are worried about whether we have to go to the market," she told AFP.
"We are all afraid of when the explosion will come...because of our lives, we cannot avoid going there."
According to local media reports, the second explosion hit the market on Thursday, killing a policeman and traders fleeing.
On the same day, the authorities announced that any stores in the complex that failed to reopen before November 5 will be "temporarily seized."
"We are trapped in the middle," Aung Ang said using a pseudonym.
"The market said that if the shopkeepers do not open the door, they will take these shops. The People's Defense Forces ask us not to do business in the market."
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