Burma's Rubies: Conscience & Human Rights

The 'dirty' rubies mined in Burma are a perfect symbol for the tensions that are emerging all over the global import/export world. In so many industries, consumers are rapidly waking up to the human rights and environmental abuses that accompany many of the imported products we love and depend upon.

Nowhere is the revelation more eye-opening than in the gemstone mining industry, not only because of our fondness for the brightly-colored and clear sparklies but because of the particular horrors of their origins.

Recently, the democratic uprising against a long-standing military government in Burma (now "officially" called Myanmar) was brutally put down and subjected to media blackout – by the same government. Before the eyes of the world, hundreds, if not a few thousands of Buddhist monks and other non-violent protesters were killed or injured. Though Burma may be 7000 miles away from the US mainland, none of us need go farther than our local jewelry store to find a central root of the conflict. Over 90% of the world's gem-quality rubies are mined in Burma. Cash from large gemstone auctions go directly to funding the government's military junta, buying weapons and paying soldiers. Enforced working conditions include the following :

• Subsistence wages that do not afford a nutritious diet
• Force-feeding of amphetimines so workers can work longer hours
• Workers are beaten or jailed if they don't meet high quotas
• The use of highly toxic chemicals and explosives with few or no safety arrangements
• Workers are not permitted to talk to outside observers or journalists

Just the human rights abuses are sufficient motive for a full-on boycott of all gem mining in the region, but the emerging accounts of the environmental impacts are equally heart-breaking, and will be posted in a later article.

Sources right in the Mogok mining region (where most of the rubies are found) confirm that much of the money goes directly to the unelected Myanmar government. The military camps out right at the mining sites to make sure their employer gets its "revenues." It was dirty gemstone money that allowed the #1 general Than Shwe to throw a $50M wedding for his daughter. See it here www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJxREGhmAJc.

Last year, Gary Roskin, a gemologist at JCKonline, a main industry voice of the US fine jewelry trade, attempted to dissemble the case for the boycott, blogging that A. "dealers in the region" say that most of the gemstones are sold into channels that don't go through the government and that B. instead of starving the government, the international boycott is only hurting the miners. The simple response is A. international buyers come directly to government auctions and B. when there are layoffs in mining and gemstone cutting/polishing, the workers are trained for other work. Of course a publication like JCK has every agenda to distort the ethics equation of a gemstone source so vital to the revenues of its own industry.

While rumors are emerging of modest improvements in working conditions, the full impact of a boycott on the global market, led by US-based companies like Tiffany and Bulgari, has yet to be seen. However, Chinese companies are all too happy to buy the gems, which due to the boycott have been falling in price. So all we can do is turn the heat up in countries where consumers are willing to demand a higher standard of conduct. Put another way : spread the word.