Many Die as Landslide Sweeps through Jade-mining Area

At least 30 people have died in a massive landslide that swept away homes, blocked roads and cut communications in Burma’s northern Kachin State.

Miners at a jade mine in Hpakant. (Source: Kachin Development Networking Group)

No official death toll has been released. Reuters news agency put the toll at 30, but local sources told The Irrawaddy at least 70 people died when the landslide swept through an area near the jade-mining center of Hpakant.

The dead included several miners. Local people blamed the disaster on jade mining, which creates large dumps that block the flow of water from the heavy rain that has been falling in the area since the start of July.

“The landslide occurred because the water can’t flow into the Uru River,” said a Hpakant resident. “I’ve never seen so much water in my life.”

About 100 jade mining companies operate in the Hpakant area. The Kachin Environmental Organization, based on the Sino-Burmese border, says that people living in the Hpakant area had appealed to the companies not to dump waste near the Uru River and to avoid environmental damage. The companies enjoy government backing, however, and locals complain that their appeals and warnings are ignored.

Local people said that at least 60 homes were swept away by the landslide.

On Thursday, the water level was receding and telephone communications had been restored. But several roads were still blocked.

An official at the hospital of Kachin State's capital Myitkyina told The Irrawaddy on Thursday he was not authorized to disclose how many victims had been admitted. Burma’s state-owned media carried no report on the disaster.

Several thousand workers are employed in the jade mines of Hpakant, which are a major foreign currency earner for the state. Working conditions are very bad and TB and HIV/AIDS are rife in the camps where the miners are housed.