The dark shadow of Myanmar’s jade trade
缅甸翡翠业的阴暗面
广州珠宝翻译公司：翡翠收入只有极少一部分流入了缅甸本土经济。这是一个混乱的行业，腐败盛行，并与种族冲突和军阀有着联系。
Much of the jadeite which delighted the 19th-century Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi and still pleases her modern compatriots comes from Myanmar, whose “imperial jade” is the world’s most valuable and is highly sought-after for its near-transparent emerald-green hues. (Jadeite, which is rare, comes from Myanmar; what is thought of as Chinese jade is in fact the more common nephrite.)
曾在19世纪让慈禧太后笑逐颜开、至今仍令现代中国人爱不释手的翡翠，大部分产自缅甸，这里的“帝王绿翡翠”因其纯净通透的翠绿色而成为全世界最具价值和极受追捧的玉石。（翡翠十分稀有，产自缅甸；常被认为是中国玉的那种玉，实际上是更为常见的软玉。）广州珠宝翻译公司。
But the grandeur of China’s Imperial Palace is a far cry from the mining towns in northern Myanmar. Here the ye ma say (hand-pickers) scratch a living in difficult conditions, searching for jadeite through waste dumped by mining companies on the blackened hills of the world’s largest jadeite mining region, Hpakant, in Kachin state. Whatever they find, they sell back to traders and miners.
但是中国古代富丽堂皇的皇宫与缅甸北部的采矿小镇有着天壤之别。在位于克钦邦(Kachin)全球最大的翡翠开采区帕敢(Hpakant)黑黢黢的矿山上，捡矿工在艰苦的条件下寻找生计，从采矿公司丢弃的矿渣中寻找翡翠。无论他们找到什么，都会卖回给交易商和矿商。
According to a 2015 report on Myanmar’s jade trade from campaigning organisation Global Witness, most of the jadeite extracted from Hpakant is smuggled to China to avoid tariffs. Global Witness’ investigations into the value of jade mined in Myanmar have suggested that it may have been as high as $31bn in 2014 alone — half of the country’s GDP, or 46 times government spending on healthcare. At the annual jade emporium in 2014, a single boulder of it was given a reserve price of €60m, according to an unpublished report.
根据活动组织“全球见证”(Global Witness) 2015年一份关于缅甸玉石行业的报告显示，绝大多数从帕敢开采出来的翡翠都通过走私进入中国，以逃避关税。“全球见证”对缅甸开采的玉石总价值的调查显示，仅2014年，缅甸开采的玉石总价值可能就高达310亿美元——相当于缅甸国内生产总值(GDP)的一半、也是该国政府医疗支出总额的46倍。根据一份未公开报告显示，在2014年度玉石交易市场上，一块翡翠原石的底价就达6000万欧元。广州珠宝翻译公司。
In June, in a case that gained international attention, a group of jade traders alleged that senior officials in previous governments had colluded with powerful business interests to appropriate $96m from a levy on the annual jade auction. The government launched a probe, which quickly found that the officials, including a former Navy commander and minister, acted within the law.
6月发生了一件引起国际关注的事，一群玉石交易商声称，缅甸前几届政府的一些高级官员与强大的商业利益勾结，从行业基金的钱（来自对年度玉石拍卖会的税收）中侵吞了9600万美元。政府启动了调查，很快得出这些政府官员（其中一人曾担任海军司令和部长）并未做出违法行为的结论。
Juman Kubba, a senior campaigner with Global Witness, says the industry remains a “black box” and that “simply saying there is ‘no corruption’ is not good enough”.
“全球见证”的资深活动人士朱曼•库贝(Juman Kubba)称，该行业仍然是一个“暗箱”，“只是说‘不存在腐败’是不够的”。广州珠宝翻译公司。
Kyaw Kyaw Oo, chairman of the KIC Group, which operates jade businesses and was one of those complaining to the government, says the evidence is there if officials bother to look. “Here in front of me I have a lot of receipts detailing how the money was spent. If you check the details of how this money was spent you will see how it was misused,” he says. The Financial Times has seen translations of these receipts, which suggest politicians and industrialists took the fund’s money.
经营玉石生意、向政府控诉此事的组织之一KIC Group的主席吴觉觉(Kyaw Kyaw Oo)称，如果官员愿意去看，证据就在眼前。“现在在我面前，就有很多详细记录金钱去向的收据。如果你详细查看这些钱的去向，你会看到这些钱是如何被不当使用的，”他称。英国《金融时报》看到了这些收据的翻译版本，表明政府官员和玉石商侵吞了行业基金的钱。
Very little of the revenue from jadeite has made its way into the local economy. According to the World Bank, the biggest producers are Chinese-owned front companies (foreign ownership is illegal) and the majority of buyers fly in from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Until last year there were no customs duties on jade, and there are already methods for avoiding the 30 per cent levy on rough gemstone exports introduced last year. To avoid taxes, mines may register the stones, but at deflated prices, before selling the jade on to shell companies. A chaotic shadow economy, the jade business is permeated by corruption and ties to ethnic conflict and warlordism, Global Witness says. It estimates $6.2bn in mine site tax was lost in 2014.
从翡翠中获得的收入，只有极少一部分流入了缅甸本土经济。世界银行(World Bank)表示，最大的生产商实际是中资所有的幌子公司（外资拥有玉石企业是不合法的），大多数买家都从中国内地、香港和台湾飞过来。直到去年玉石一直没有关税，而现在已经有法子逃避去年开始对玉石毛料出口开征的30%的税收了。为了避税，矿区可能会以虚假的低价登记翡翠原石，然后再向空壳公司出售翡翠。“全球见证”指出，翡翠行业是一个混乱的影子经济，腐败盛行，并与种族冲突和军阀有着联系。该组织预计，2014年缅甸损失了62亿美元的矿区税收。广州珠宝翻译公司。
“For years, a powerful elite has been gorging itself on Myanmar’s jade riches at the expense of the rest of the population,” says Ms Kubba. “Reckless exploitation has led to deadly landslides and ravaged the environment, while local people have been squeezed out of the mines and Kachin state remains riven by intractable armed conflict.”
“多年来，有权势的精英阶层一直贪婪地从缅甸丰富的玉石资源中攫取利益，其他人则为他们的这种行为承受了代价，”库贝称，“粗暴的开采引发了致命的泥石流并破坏了环境，同时当地人被挤出了矿区，难以解决的武装冲突仍然让克钦邦四分五裂。”
Rising affluence in China since the 1990s intensified the demand for jadeite, according to United Nations trade statistics, and encouraged Myanmar’s military junta to seize control of Hpakant’s lucrative jade fields from the Kachin Independence Army, a military group formerly seeking autonomy for the region. Military officers gained control of the most valuable deposits, distributing concessions to relatives and cronies, according to the Global Witness report.
据联合国(UN)贸易数据显示，中国自上世纪90年代以来日益富裕，推高了对翡翠的需求，促使缅甸军政府从曾寻求地区独立的克钦独立军(Kachin Independence Army)手中，抢走了对帕敢利润丰厚的产玉区的控制。根据“全球见证”的报告，军官掌控了最具价值的矿藏，将开采许可分发给家属和亲信。广州珠宝翻译公司。
As production ramped up, so too did corruption and the number of social and environmental disasters. More than 100 people died in one incident last year when a waste tip collapsed as scavengers searched for jade scraps, prompting the deputy minister for mining to propose operations there be shut down. Local civil society groups estimate that more than two-thirds of the scavengers are addicted to heroin, which is sold openly in mining areas.
随着产量提升，腐败现象更加猖獗，社会和环境灾难也有所增多。去年，捡矿工在寻找玉石碎料时，一处矿渣堆发生坍塌事件，导致逾100人死亡，这促使矿业部副部长提出让该矿区停工。当地公民社会团体估计，三分之二的捡矿工都吸食海洛因成瘾。海洛因在矿区是公开销售的。
Despite the transition to civilian-led government in 2011 after nearly 50 years of military rule, military officials and companies, such as the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings, placed under sanction by the US in 2008, still control much of the trade and the mechanism for allocating permits, according to experts.
专家表示，尽管在经历了将近50年的军政府统治后，缅甸在2011年过渡到文官政府执政，但是军官和军队控制的企业（比如2008年被美国加入制裁名单的缅甸联邦经济控股(Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings)）仍然控制着玉石行业的大部分领域以及许可证分配机制。广州珠宝翻译公司。
As a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Myanmar has agreed by January 2017 to devise a plan for revealing the beneficial ownership of jade companies and reforming mining legislation. The state regulator, the Myanmar Gems Enterprise, has announced that permits for more than 300 jade and gem blocks will expire this month and a moratorium on new permits was declared in July.
作为《采掘业透明度倡议》（Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative，简称EITI）的成员国，缅甸已同意在2017年1月前设计出一套方案，以公开玉石公司的受益所有权并改革采矿业相关法律。国家监管机构缅甸宝石公司(Myanmar Gems Enterprise)已宣布，有300多个玉石和宝石矿区的许可证将于本月到期，暂停发放新许可证的消息已于7月公布。
The MGE organises the gem emporium and acts as both regulator and operator-owner in joint ventures with private mining companies that span many of the most important jade tracts near Hpakant. Much to the dismay of transparency watchdogs, in September, President Barack Obama met with Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi on her first official visit to the US and announced that all economic sanctions — including those affecting MGE — would be lifted.
缅甸宝石公司管理着宝石市场，既是监管者也是经营场所的共同所有者（与多家私营矿商合资，这些矿商控制着帕敢附近很多极为重要的玉矿）。9月美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)会见了首次正式访问美国的缅甸国务资政昂山素季(Aung San Suu Kyi)并宣布解除对缅甸的一切经济制裁（包括对缅甸宝石公司施加的制裁），令行业透明监督机构大失所望。广州珠宝翻译公司。
Hla San, a Kachin state lawmaker with the governing National League for Democracy, who has campaigned for greater transparency in the sector, says even the most recent exposés have only scratched the surface. “You only get to hear about the details of corruption when [companies] squabble with each other and it goes public,” he says.
一直推动该行业提高透明度的克钦邦议员、执政党全国民主联盟(National League for Democracy)成员山拉(Hla San)称，哪怕最近揭露出来的事情也只是触碰到皮毛。“只有当企业之间发生争执并且这种争执公开化时，你才会听到腐败的细节，”他表示。
MGE’s connections (it has staff who used to be in the military) have afforded it influence and autonomy, says Matthieu Salomon of the Natural Resource Governance Institute non-governmental organisation. “MGE’s responsibilities remain hazy, in part because the enterprise has failed to make public key documents in its domain, such as the Myanmar Gemstone Rules, or any activity or annual report.” Representatives of the MGE did not respond to requests for comment.
非政府组织自然资源治理研究所(Natural Resource Governance Institute)的马蒂厄•萨洛蒙(Matthieu Salomon)称，缅甸宝石公司（它有曾在军队当兵的员工）的关系网使之拥有了影响力和自主权。“缅甸宝石公司的责任范围仍然模糊，部分是因为该公司没有公开其领域内的关键文件——比如《缅甸宝石规则》(Myanmar Gemstone Rules)——和任何活动或年度报告。”缅甸宝石公司的代表没有回应置评请求。广州珠宝翻译公司。
Also of concern to transparency groups is the use of so-called “other accounts” by the MGE to amass revenues with no public scrutiny. Myanmar’s first EITI report showed the MGE retained over half of the official gemstone revenues — more than $200m — in these accounts, which Mr Salomon called a “modest estimate”. The real figure amassed in its accounts, he says, could be as high as $650m.
同样让透明度监督组织担忧的是，缅甸宝石公司使用了所谓的“其他账户”，在不接受公众监督的情况下积聚收入。缅甸首份EITI报告表明，缅甸宝石公司把逾一半的官方宝石收入——超过2亿美元（萨洛蒙称该数字为“保守估计”）——保留在这些账户中。他表示，该公司账户中积累的真实数字可能最高达6.5亿美元。
Mr Kyaw Kyaw of the KIC Group says that transparency measures have to be enforced while Chinese demand remains high. “There needs to be punishment for people who break the law. But without the army and police’s help, we cannot make this work. If they participate and support this action, then, perhaps, things will change.”
KIC Group的吴觉觉表示，在中国需求仍然高涨的情况下，必须加强改善行业透明度的措施。“对违法者必须有惩罚措施。但没有军队和警方的帮助，我们无法实现。如果他们参与并支持这项行动，那么事情或许会有所改观。”
