A baby lives with HIV, a woman buys a bracelet, a man fights for freedom from heroin.
From Burma's mines to Mandalay's markets to Chinese consumers lured by luxury, this
is the high human cost of Jade's journey.
Jade's allure for China's growing middle class has fueled a boom.
The Chinese are estimated to spend between $2 and $3.5 billion a year on Burma's Jadeite,
the most coveted form of Jade.
Over 1700 miles south of Beijing, in Mandalay, Myanmar, Jade is purchased in a much different
way, by the bag full.
The wholesale market here opens up daily at 2 a.m., and by sunrise, Chinese nationals
flood the market, looking to stock their stores in China to meet the growing demand.
The vast majority of Burma sought after Jade come from Kachin state and impoverished in
war-torn territory in Myanmar's far north.
Civil war here between the ethnic Kachin and dominant Burmese has been ongoing since the
creation of the state of Myanmar over 50 years ago.
Generations of authoritarian rule and neglect have left Kachin state and shambles.
Average incomes here are below $1 a day.
But with guaranteed demand from China, Jade mining has become the best option for Kachin
looking to escape poverty.
The
It's not just about the forest, it's about the forest.
The forest is about the forest.
The forest is about the forest.
Jade lies close to the surface in the rolling hills of northern Myanmar near the Chinese border.
Foreigners aren't permitted anywhere near this area.
Raw, it looks like many other stones, but cut and polished, its trademark green hue shines bright.
Large-scale mining concessions are licensed to companies with ties to the Burmese government.
Smaller-scale operations like this are mined with hand tools by Kachin workers.
However, dozens of miners interviewed by the New York Times said the operations they worked for
were illegally financed by Chinese businessmen.
I'm found money to work with.
I've worked with my family in the Burmese materials department in
Not a ring would work around the clock, working for days without sleep.
He was paid $1 an hour.
Dealers set up shops next to or on mining sites like this, where users are free to sell, buy and use heroin.
Gachin miners claim that police and military routinely take bribes and allow the market to run without interference of the law.
What looks like piles of trash are in fact piles of needles.
People are forced to sleep in the house. But the government is not willing to.
People are forced to sleep in the house.
The government is not willing to sleep in the house.
Heroin is illegal in Myanmar, but its rampant use in Gachin state and lack of drug enforcement in the mines has led many Gachin to believe that the central government is encouraging the Scourge as a weapon against their people.
People are forced to sleep in the house. But the government is not willing to sleep in the house.
Laja, a former addict, runs rehab clinics in Machina, Gachin state's capital.
He tries to help miners hooked on heroin. Sadly, he believes his success rate is lower than 5%.
The government is not willing to sleep in the house.
The government is not willing to sleep in the house.
People are forced to sleep in the house.
People are forced to sleep in the house.
Over time, the heroin epidemic has spread from the mines into urban and rural areas throughout
Kichin's state.
The Kichin Baptist Convention, which oversees more than 300 churches in the state, estimates
that up to 80% of Kichin youth are now addicted to heroin.
This addict only has a few short weeks left to live.
While the mines generate billions of dollars in revenue for the owners and central government,
little is left for the Kichin people to treat the growing army of addicts.
Kichin's state is majority Christian, a legacy of missionaries that came here in the 1800s.
Many of its churches, pillars in the community, have stepped in to fill the void.
But without Western resources like methadone, dependency is being fought with prayer, water
therapy, and even chains and cages.
Critics say some of the methods violate the most basic of human rights.
But Kichin leaders say they have no way to keep drug addicts from fleeing back to their
dealers.
Just weeks after being chained to this bed, Mengcha escaped again.
He died shortly after from a heroin overdose.
There's a huge need to respond to this and it needs to be done now.
Drug dependence is a chronic relapsing medical condition, and the availability of methadone
in this country is very, very low.
You're talking about 3,500 people who have access to it in a country that the government
estimates using a consensus number of 150,000 drug users.
We put the number somewhere in between 300,000 and 400,000.
You have 3,500 people who have a medicine that supports them in drug treatment.
It should be 10 times that.
Several health workers say as many as half of the Kichin users are now HIV positive,
while 80% have contracted hepatitis C.
Rehabs and hospices throughout the region are overflowing with minors and their families,
whom they have transmitted diseases to.
As the drugs and disease spread and the Kichin and Burmese continue to fight, China's role
in the conflict is more difficult to pinpoint.
While it's clear the great demand for jade is luring impoverished Kichin into the drug-infested
mines, the question remains, what responsibility should the mine owners, jade dealers, and
Chinese consumers have for the well-being of the Kichin?
International human rights organizations say China has turned a blind eye to the human
suffering wrought by the Chinese love for Kichin's jade.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes notes that the vast majority of
chemical agents needed to make heroin also come from China.
When confronted about the connection between jade and drugs and Kichin, an official with
the state-affiliated Gems & Jewry Trade Association of China denied there was a drug problem.
When asked about why heroin was not being policed in Kichin state, Myanmar's Ministry
of Mines refused to answer.
