Foreign buyers of precious stones prop up junta, oppress Myanmese

In the car park of a Yangon auctioneer, jewellers set out their wares as they prepare for the arrival of the rich and powerful buyers.

Hundreds of blocks of rough-hewn jade, some the size of boulders, are laid out in the tropical heat. Bidders then retreat into air conditioning to compete for a gem that is growing in demand throughout the world and helping Myanmar's junta get rich.

The Special Gem Auction held in Yangon this week used to be a yearly event but, with sales higher than ever, it is now held every three months. Next door is the Royal Ruby Jade Hotel, opened earlier this year to accommodate the thousands of buyers who attend the auctions.

An ordinary person cannot get inside the sales room, but a glance at the invitation list showed that most of the more than 2,000 delegates came from mainland China, Myanmar's principal trading partner. Five were from Britain and 35 from the United States. The US jewellery industry has won an exemption from its country's trade embargo against Myanmar for stones cut outside the country.

More than 90 per cent of the world's rubies also come from Myanmar's mines and, carat for carat, the blood-red stones are worth more than diamonds. Jade, highly prized in China, is found almost nowhere else. The ground also holds other gems, including sapphires and diamonds.

'The chances are, if you go down any high street in the UK and there are rubies on sale, then they are from the regime and the proceeds have been used to repress the people,' said Mark Farmaner, of the Burma Campaign UK.

All mining companies are government joint enterprises. The state-owned Myanmar Gem Enterprises, which organised this week's auction, is the country's third biggest exporter, earning #150 million (HK$2.4 billion) last year.