* Miners buried under wave of mud and water
* Survivor heard people yelling 'run, run!'
* Global Witness laments 'preventable tragedy'
(Updates death toll, adds detail, context)July 2 (Reuters) - A landslide at a jade mine in northernMyanmar killed at least 126 people, with more feared dead,authorities said on Thursday, after a heap of mining wastecollapsed into a lake and buried many workers under mud andwater.The miners were collecting stones in the jade-rich Hpakantarea of Kachin state - the centre of Myanmar's secretive jadeindustry - when the "muddy wave" crashed onto them, after heavyrain, the fire service department said in a Facebook post.By late afternoon rescue workers had recovered 126 bodies,the department said, but more were missing."Other bodies are in the mud," Tar Lin Maung, a localofficial with the information ministry, told Reuters by phone."The numbers are going to rise."Deadly landslides and other accidents are common in thepoorly regulated mines of Hpakant, which draw impoverishedworkers from across Myanmar in search of gems mostly for exportto China. But Thursday's accident was the worst in over fiveyears.
About 100 people were killed in a 2015 collapse whichstrengthened calls to regulate the industry. Another 50 died in2019.Many of those killed are freelance "jade pickers" who scourtailings - the residue from mining - for gemstones overlooked bylarger operators. One good piece of jade, worth tens ofthousands of dollars, could transform their lives.Video footage on social media showed frantic miners racinguphill to escape as a towering pile of black waste cascaded intoa turquoise lake, churning up a tsunami-like wave of mud.Photos showed rows of dead bodies laid out on a hill,covered by tarpaulin.In a statement posted online on Thursday evening, the armedforces commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, saidmilitary officers would continue the rescue efforts.
'RUN, RUN'Maung Khaing, a 38-year-old miner from the area whowitnessed the accident, said he was about to take a picture ofthe precarious waste mound he felt looked set to collapse whenpeople began shouting "run, run!""Within a minute, all the people at the bottom (of the hill)just disappeared," he told Reuters by phone. "I feel empty in myheart. I still have goose bumps...There were people stuck in themud shouting for help but no one could help them."Than Hlaing, a member of a local civil society group helpingin the aftermath of the disaster, said those killed werefreelancers scavenging the waste left by a larger mining firm.She said about 100 people were still missing and 30 had beenhospitalized.A local official had warned people not to go to the mine onThursday because of the bad weather, she said."There's no hope for the families to get compensation asthey were freelance miners."
The government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi pledged toclean up the industry when it took power in 2016, but activistssay little has changed.Official sales of jade in Myanmar were worth 671 millioneuros ($750 million) in 2016-17, according to data published bythe government as part of an Extractive Industries TransparencyInitiative.But rights group Global Witness says the trade is worthbillions of dollars a year, funds it says fuel armed conflictbetween government troops and ethnic Kachin rebels fighting forgreater autonomy for the region.
In a statement, the group called Thursday's accident a"preventable tragedy" and said the Suu Kyi's administration hadfailed to implement promised reforms to curb "illicit andrapacious mining practices". A government spokesman did notanswer phone calls by Reuters seeking comment. (Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Sam Holmes, Kim Coghill andGiles Elgood)
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