News
Myanmar’s environment hit by rare earth mining boom
Kachin State’s Chipwi Township in northernmost Myanmar is known for its pristine forests and crystal-clear water. But 10 years ago, local residents started noticing the patches of land that had been cleared on the lush mountains surrounding their town, which borders China’s Yunnan province. It started ...
Maran Htoi Awng
Illegal rare-earth mining goes rampant in northern Kachin State
The number of illegal rare-earth element mining businesses in northern Kachin State has now increased much greater than the previous years, according to local sources. Locals say rare-earth mining was seen only in hilly border areas near Panwa before Myanmar’s political change in 2021, but the ...
TUN LIN AUNG (MYITKYINA)
Thousands of Protesters Call For Termination of Dam Project in Myanmar’s Kachin State
About 10,000 people in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state staged a massive protest Thursday against the controversial Chinese-backed Myitsone Dam and recent calls by China for the suspended project to resume. Kachin activists, leaders from Kachin political parties, religious leaders, local civil society groups, Buddhist monks, ...
Myanmar army killing civilians in escalating conflict in Kachin, warns UN
The UN’s human rights expert for Myanmar has raised alarm over a lethal escalation in hostilities in the country’s Kachin state, warning that civilians had been killed and displaced in recent government bombing. Keep reading ...
Peter Beaumont
Trouble brewing after giant jade rock seized and deemed state property
Tensions are rising between gem scavengers and the Taut Pa Kye Company in Hpakant township, Kachin State, after a huge jadeite found by scavengers was confiscated as it was said to be state-owned property. After the jadeite was discovered in the Taut Pa Kye Company work ...
Nine killed in Kachin jade mine landslide
A landslide in northern Myanmar’s jade mining region has killed 9 people, a local official said on February 11, the latest fatal incident to strike the shadowy billion-dollar industry. The men were believed to be searching for jade in Kachin State when a wall of unstable ...
Teachers call for better security after educator’s murder
Teachers around the country demonstrated on January 22 calling for better protection of educators after one of their colleagues was abducted and shot dead in Kachin State’s Hpakant township. Primary school teacher U Aung Zin Tun, who was assigned to Hpakant township’s Nantmaphit village, was reportedly ...
Lifting US jade sanctions ‘a mistake’: Myanmar minister
The minister in charge of mining in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden state of Kachin says it was a mistake for the United States to lift sanctions on the country’s notorious jade industry. Kachin lies at the heart of the “jade tract”, a small area that has deposits ...
China continues to court on Myitsone project ahead of commission presser
As the commission tasked with reviewing hydropower projects along the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady River submitted its first report to the president this past week, Chinese state media has assured its nation of the ongoing “friendly and cooperative” Sino-Myanmar relationship. The China News article, ...
