Burmese junta: jewelry brands singled out by Global Witness

Rare ring, with a Burmese ruby ​​weighing 25.59 carats, at a preview at the auction house Sotheby's in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2015. AP - Martial Trezzini

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The NGO Global Witness, in a report released this Wednesday, December 15, several major jewelry brands indirectly finance the military who seized power on February 1 in Burma.

The head of US diplomacy said during his visit to Thailand that the United States wanted to find new ways to increase "pressure" on the junta.

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In Burma, in the eyes of the American Antony Blinken, the situation has only " 

" since the military coup of last February, despite the sanctions already imposed.

The economic measures taken so far do not seem sufficient to stop the activities of the junta.

The latter continues to sell its rubies, emeralds and even jades to the whole world.

The production of precious stones, in particular that of ruby, is a lucrative market which would generate more than 300 million euros.

According to the NGO Global Witness, these revenues have enabled the Burmese military to consolidate their power and financial resources, especially since the coup. 

Clare Hammond, specialist in Burma for the NGO, explains that the opacity at the level of distribution chains allows companies to continue their operations while promoting responsible sourcing. 

We spoke to twenty different retail chains in Thailand, which supply major international jewelry brands. None of them knew which Burmese mine their gemstones came from. This is a major problem when you know that the military has control of many mines. There is such a lack of transparency in the distribution chain, that it allows big brands to hide behind a lack of information and to claim that they are not financing atrocities.

According to her, tens of thousands of miners work by hand in mines now operated by both the military and non-state armed groups.

Since the coup, the military have extorted money from minors, who are even more vulnerable to the risk of arbitrary violence.

►RFI archive: Natural resources, shield of the Burmese junta (2007)

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