缅甸密支那 翡翠的诅咒

MYITKYINA, Myanmar — At 16, the gem trader’s son set out for the jade mines to seek his fortune in the precious stone that China craves. But a month in, the teenager, Sang Aung Bau Hkum, was feeding his own addiction: heroin, the drug of choice among the men who work the bleak terrain of gouged earthen pits, shared needles and dwindling hope here in the jungles of northern Myanmar.

缅甸密支那——这个宝石商人的儿子16岁时来到翡翠矿，想从这种让中国发狂的宝石中寻找自己发财的机会。但一个月后，这位名叫桑昂巴乌(Sang Aung Bau Hkum)的少年需要满足自己的毒瘾：他用上了在这片挖出很多大土坑的荒凉地里工作的男人的首选毒品海洛因，和别人共用针头。希望在缅甸北部的丛林中渐渐消失。

Three years later he finally found what he had come for — a jade rock “as green as a summer leaf.” He spent some of the $6,000 that a Chinese trader paid him on a motorcycle, a cellphone and gambling.

三年后，他终于找到了自己为之而来的东西：一块“和夏天的树叶一样绿的”翡翠。他把一个中国商人付给他的6000美元(约合3.4万元人民币)的一部分花在了买一辆摩托车和一部手机上，还在赌博上花了点钱。

“The rest disappeared into my veins,” he said, tapping the crook in his left arm as dozens of other gaunt miners in varying states of withdrawal passed the time at a rudimentary rehabilitation clinic here. “The Chinese bosses know we’re addicted to heroin, but they don’t care. Their minds are filled with jade.”

“剩下的钱都消失在我的静脉里，”他用手指轻敲着自己左胳膊的肘弯说，他身边是在这里的一家非常原始的戒毒所里消磨时光的面容憔悴的矿工，他们有不同程度的脱瘾症状。“中国老板知道我们上了海洛因的瘾，但他们不管我们。他们满脑子都是翡翠。”

Mr. Sang Aung Bau Hkum, now 24, is just one face of a trade — like blood diamonds in Africa — that is turning good fortune into misery.

桑昂巴乌现在24岁了，他只是涉足那些把好运变成痛苦的买卖——类似的还有非洲的血钻——的一员。

Driven by an insatiable demand from the growing Chinese middle class, Myanmar’s jade industry is booming and should be showering the nation, one of the world’s poorest, with unprecedented prosperity. Instead, much of the wealth it generates remains in control of elite members of the military, the rebel leaders fighting them for greater autonomy and the Chinese financiers with whom both sides collude to smuggle billions of dollars’ worth of the gem into China, according to jade miners, mining companies and international human rights groups.

在日益增长的中国中产阶层无法满足的需求驱动下，缅甸的翡翠产业正在蓬勃发展，这本该让这个属于世界最贫穷行列的国家得到前所未有的繁荣。然而并非如此，绝大部分翡翠所产生的财富被少数人控制着，包括军方精英成员、为了更大的自主权而与军方作战的叛乱头目，以及双方都与之勾结的中国投资者，据翡翠矿工、矿产公司以及国际人权组织说，这些人沆瀣一气把价值数十亿美元的宝石走私到中国。

Such rampant corruption has not only robbed the government of billions in tax revenue for rebuilding after decades of military rule, it has also helped finance a bloody ethnic conflict and unleashed an epidemic of heroin use and H.I.V. infection among the Kachin minority who work the mines.

这种猖獗的腐败，不仅偷走了政府在数十年的军事统治后进行重建所需的数十亿美元的税收收入，而且为血腥的种族冲突提供了资金，并在从事玉石开采的克钦少数民族中造成了海洛因滥用及艾滋病毒感染的流行。

The drug and jade trades have become a toxic mix, with heroin — made from opium poppies that long ago turned Myanmar into a top producer of illicit drugs — keeping a pliant work force toiling in harsh conditions as the Burmese authorities and Chinese business people turn a blind eye.

毒品交易和翡翠交易已成为一种有毒的组合，从罂粟提取的海洛因在很早以前就让缅甸成为非法毒品的主要生产地，现在海洛因让恶劣条件下劳作的矿工听从摆布，而缅甸当局和中国商人对这些视而不见。

At a time when Myanmar is experimenting with democratic governance after nearly 50 years of military dictatorship, its handling of the jade industry has become a test of the new civilian leaders and their commitment to supporting human rights and rooting out corruption, as well as an early check on whether they will reject the former junta’s kleptocratic dealings with China.

在经过近50年的军事独裁统治后，缅甸目前正在尝试民主治理，缅甸对翡翠业的处理已成为对新的文职领导人以及他们支持人权、根除腐败承诺的一种考验，也是对他们是否将拒绝像前军政府那样与中国进行暗中交易的早期检查。

So far, experts say, they have failed.

专家说，到目前为止，缅甸政府的表现不及格。

Washington is worried enough about the link between jade and violence — and the effect on democratic change — that it kept in place a ban on the gem from Myanmar, also known as Burma, even after it suspended almost every other sanction against the country since the civilian government came to power in 2011. But critics say the sanctions are useless because China attaches no such conditions.

华盛顿方面对翡翠和暴力之间的联系、及其对民主变革的影响有足够的担心，虽然美国在缅甸文官政府自2011年上台以来，暂停了几乎所有对该国的制裁，但仍继续保持着从那里进口这种宝石的禁令。但批评人士说，这些禁令没用，因为中国没有类似的限制。

“The multibillion-dollar jade business should be driving peaceful development in Kachin and Myanmar as a whole,” said Mike Davis from Global Witness, an anticorruption organization. “Instead it is empowering the same elite that brought the country to its knees and poses the biggest threat to peace and democratic reform.”

“价值数十亿美元的翡翠生意本该促进克钦邦、乃至缅甸全国的和平发展，”反腐败组织“全球见证”(Global Witness)的迈克·戴维斯(Mike Davis)说。“然而并非如此，翡翠业仍在让同样的精英们受益，他们曾把国家搞瘫痪，现在他们成为对和平与民主改革的最大威胁。”

Poverty Amid Riches

财富中滋长着贫穷

The fountainhead of Myanmar’s jade wealth is here in the mountains of Kachin State, which is rich in natural resources and poor in just about everything else. The country’s northernmost territory, Kachin shares a long border with China and is home to the Kachin ethnic group, a largely Christian minority with ambitions to gain more autonomy.

缅甸翡翠财富的源泉在克钦邦这里的山区，这里有丰富的天然资源，但几乎没有其他任何东西。克钦邦位于缅甸的最北部，与中国有漫长的边界线，是克钦族人的家园，克钦族是主要信封基督教的少数民族，他们追求的目标是更多的自主权。

Myitkyina, the down-and-out state capital, is the gateway to the most active mining region, containing what experts say is the world’s biggest and most valuable trove of jade. With its broken sidewalks, stray dogs and cemeteries littered with syringes, Myitkyina is a potent symbol of the region’s ills. The city’s tea shops have a thriving illegal side business in selling heroin, one of the few trades that have grown alongside the jade industry.

密支那是克钦邦穷困潦倒的首府，是通往最活跃的矿区的必经之路，矿区有专家称之为世界上最大、最值钱的翡翠宝藏。密支那破烂的人行道、满街的流浪狗，以及散落着注射器的墓地，是该地区糟糕状态的有力象征。城市的茶叶店经营着出售海洛因的繁荣非法副业，那是为数不多的与翡翠行业同时增长的贸易。

“In every house, there is an addict,” said Gareng Bang Aung, a local heroin user.

“每家都有吸毒者，”当地的海洛因使用者格亮兴昂(Gareng Bang Aung)说。

The city is the closest Westerners can get to the mining area, Hpakant. The government says it keeps the area closed because of sporadic fighting with the Kachin rebel army, but activists see a darker purpose: to hide the illegal jade and drug trades flourishing there. The only foreigners allowed past the military checkpoints, they say, are the Chinese who run the mines or go there to buy gems.

密支那是西方人能到的、距矿区帕敢最近的地方。政府说，禁止外人进入矿区是因为那里仍有与克钦族叛军进行的零星战斗，但活动人士看到了其中的黑暗目的：隐藏那里蓬勃发展的非法翡翠和毒品交易。他们说，唯一能通过军方检查站的外国人，是经营矿产、或去那里购买宝石的中国人。

The lack of access adds to the mysteries of the jade industry, whose inner workings are deliberately obscured. Even the simplest information is not publicly available — including which companies operate the mines and how many are Chinese-run or financed despite laws banning foreign ownership. But interviews with jade miners and executives in Myitkyina, and with gem traders, diplomats and nongovernmental organizations elsewhere, reveal a dizzyingly corrupt and brutal industry funded almost completely by Chinese trade.

不能进入该地区增加了翡翠行业的神秘感，其内部运作情况被有意掩盖起来。就连最简单的信息也不公开，比如哪些公司经营矿山，有多少由中国人拥有或出资，虽然缅甸法律禁止外资拥有企业。但是，对密支那的翡翠矿工和管理人员、以及其他地方的宝石商人、外交官和非政府组织的采访，暴露出一个令人眼花缭乱、几乎完全靠中国贸易资助的腐败和残酷的行业。

Their descriptions of the harsh conditions at the mines were corroborated by rare footage filmed there by a local journalist hired by The New York Times.

这些人对矿场恶劣条件的描述，得到《纽约时报》聘请的一名当地记者拍摄的罕见录像的佐证。

The video from inside the checkpoints shows lush rolling hills scarred by craters that descend for hundreds of feet into pits. There, hundreds of men worked in the searing heat, picking through rocks with rudimentary shovels, or their hands, in search of the gem.

这段在检查站那边拍到的录像显示，连绵起伏的葱郁丘陵布满了环形山口的伤痕，环形山口通往上百米深的坑底。在那里，数百名男子用最基本的工具、或徒手在灼热环境中寻找宝石。

In some cases, the miners shoot water from high-powered hoses to break up the rock walls, a dangerous practice that sometimes triggers landslides.

在有些情况下，矿工们用高压管把水喷射到石壁上将其击碎，这种做法很危险，有时会引发山体滑坡。

Also visible in the footage: an open-air heroin shooting gallery, hard up against a mine.

镜头中还可以看到的，是紧靠着一个矿场的一个打海洛因的露天输液所。

Corruption Fuels Conflict

腐败使冲突加剧

Myanmar’s jade industry took off in the 1980s after the introduction of market reforms in China. For the first time since Mao Zedong began banning private enterprise in 1949, entrepreneurs betting that the gemstone would become big business in China started jumping into the trade. Their financing helped build an industry that churns out the Buddha figurines and thick bracelets that have become status symbols for China’s middle class. The burgeoning market transformed the Kachin insurgency, which had started in 1961 as a fight mostly about political independence, into a raging battle that extends to natural resources. A 1994 cease-fire stopped the violence, but gave the Burmese junta and its Chinese backers control over the best tracts in Hpakant.

缅甸的翡翠行业在20世纪80年代中国市场改革之后开始腾飞。自从毛泽东1949年以后禁止民营企业以来，投注这种宝石在中国能卖大钱的创业者能首次开始参与这个交易。他们的资金帮助建立了一个行业，为中国中产阶级大量生产象征地位的玉佛像和粗粗的玉手镯。这个新兴市场把始于1961年的克钦叛乱，从一个主要是有关政治的独立斗争，转变为一场延伸到自然资源的熊熊战火。虽然1994年的停火带来了暴力的终止，但把帕敢最好矿区的控制权交给了缅甸军政府及其中国支持者。

The cease-fire fell apart in 2011, with jade fueling the conflict by funneling money to both sides. Local news media say about 120,000 people have been displaced by the fighting that included military airstrikes in Kachin; the death toll remains in dispute.

翡翠交易带来的钱给冲突的双方火上加油，导致停火协议在2011年瓦解。当地新闻媒体说，战火导致约12万人流离失所，政府武装还对克钦军队进行过空袭；死亡人数仍有争议。

In an interview, Dau Hka, a senior official with the political wing of the rebel Kachin Independence Army, described a sophisticated revenue collection system in which mining companies that want to operate in areas under the rebels’ control “donate” money to them, providing half their operating budget.

反对派克钦独立军(Kachin Independence Army)的政治组织高级官员杜卡(Dau Hka)在接受采访时描述了一个复杂的收费制度，根据这个制度，想要在反对派控制的地区运作的采矿公司会向他们“捐款”，为其提供了一半的运营预算。

“The donations aren’t exactly legal,” he acknowledged.

“这种捐款严格来说并不合法，”他承认道。

The K.I.A. also makes money by working with Chinese companies to smuggle jade through the jungle into China, according to activists and a Chinese jade importer. “They’ll call us beforehand, and we’ll come in a convoy to pick up the goods,” said the trader, who would give only his surname, Chun. The rebels, he added, demand cash on delivery.

活动人士和一名中国玉石进口商说，克钦独立军还会与中国企业合作，把玉石通过丛林走私到中国，并从中牟利。“他们会提前给我们打电话，我们随后会派车队去取货，”这名交易商只透露自己姓宗。他接着说，这些叛乱分子一般要求货到付款。

Yet the fighters’ spoils pale in comparison to those enjoyed by the powerful Burmese military elite, whose companies receive the choicest tracts of mining land from the government, according to miners and international rights groups. Like the K.I.A., some military officers are also involved in smuggling, extracting bribes to allow the illicit practice, activists say.

然而，这些武装分子的战利品与强大的缅甸军方权贵享受到的好处相比只是小巫见大巫。据一些矿工和国际权力组织说，缅甸军方权贵的企业会从政府获得最优质的矿区。活动人士说，就像克钦独立军一样，一些军方官员也参与走私，为不法操作提供便利，从而索取贿赂。

“The top dogs are the Burmese military,” said Mr. Davis of Global Witness, which has investigated the Burmese jade trade.

“最大的赢家是缅甸军方，”全球见证组织的戴维斯说。他曾经调查过缅甸的玉石贸易。

Perhaps half or more of the jade that is mined, those who study the industry say, vanishes into the black market. The Ministry of Mines, in an email response to detailed questions, denied that smuggling is a major problem. Although official jade sales generate significant tax revenue, David Dapice of Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, which did an extensive study of the jade trade, estimated that the government is losing billions a year to illegal trading. Possibly the greater tragedy, however, is the heroin epidemic ravaging a new generation of Kachin.

研究该行业的人说，在从矿山开采出的玉石中，可能有一半或者更多流入了黑市。缅甸矿业部在回复一些详细问题的邮件中否认了走私问题的严重性。哈佛大学艾什民主治理与创新中心(Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation)的戴维·达皮斯(David Dapice)做过玉石贸易的一项大范围研究，他估计，尽管合法的翡翠销售带来了大量税收，政府每年因为非法贸易损失数十亿美元。然而，更大的悲剧可能是毁灭了年轻克钦人的海洛因的泛滥。

Heroin’s High Toll

海洛因泛滥的高昂代价

For decades, heroin was rare in Kachin State. The surge in the jade trade changed all that, creating a market for drugs among the thousands of Kachin laborers who flocked to the mines seeking an escape from poverty.

曾经在数十年时间里，海洛因在克钦邦都非常罕见。玉石贸易的增长改变了这种状况，为了逃离贫困而涌入矿山的大量克钦劳工中诞生了一个毒品市场。

But Ze Hkaung Lazum, 27, said the mines proved to be a trap. Heroin, he said, is sold in bamboo huts “like vegetables in a market” for between $4 and $8 a hit. Miners squat in the open, next to piles of used needles, with syringes hanging from their arms. If the drug fails to take the workers’ meager earnings, the prostitutes waiting nearby are happy to oblige for $6 per 20-minute session. Within months, Mr. Ze Hkaung Lazum was a frequent customer of both.

不过，27岁的泽康拉尊(Ze Hkaung Lazum)说，矿山是一个陷阱。他说，一些小竹屋专门出售海洛因，就像“市场里的蔬菜”一样常见，一剂海洛因的价格在4美元到8美元。矿工们蹲坐在露天，身旁是堆积如山的旧针头，胳膊上挂着注射器。如果毒品还不足以花光工人微薄的收入，等在附近的妓女很愿意以20分钟6美元的价格提供服务。几个月后，泽康拉尊就成了这两种服务的常客。

Some miners, like Bum Hkrang, a 24-year-old recovering addict, say they need the drug to steel themselves for the backbreaking and dangerous work their Burmese and Chinese bosses demand; others say they simply fell into addiction because the drug was so available, with some heroin dealers accepting jade as payment.

有些矿工说，自己需要毒品的支持才能完成缅甸和中国老板要求的繁重而危险的工作，这其中包括正在戒毒的24岁的本康(Bum Hkrang)；还有一些人说，他们染上毒瘾只是因为毒品太容易得到了，有些海洛因的经销商接受用玉石来付款。

“Try digging all day with an iron rod and see how you feel,” he said, adding that he had abandoned his university studies for the promise of fast riches. Heroin, he discovered, gave him enough energy to work 24 hours straight.

本康说，“你试试整天用铁棍挖矿，看看是什么感觉。”他接着说，就是因为有人向他保证干这行能快速致富，他放弃了大学学业。他发现，海洛因让他有了一天工作24小时的精力。

Miners say at least four out of five workers are habitual drug users. Users who overdose are buried near the mines, amid groves of bamboo.

矿工们说，至少五分之四的工人习惯性吸毒。因吸毒过量而死的人被埋在矿山附近，四周是茂密的竹林。

Over time, heroin abuse spilled into the broader population.

渐渐地，海洛因的滥用扩大到了更广泛的人群。

Like many locals, Tang Goon, who works on an antidrug project, believes the government is distributing heroin to weaken the ethnic insurgency, with the military allowing pushers past their checkpoints. “Heroin is their weapon,” he said.

就像许多当地人一样，在禁毒项目工作的当古(Tang Goon)认为，为了遏制民族骚乱，政府正在从事销售海洛因的勾当，军方允许非法毒品销售者通过检查站。“海洛因是他们的武器，”他说。

But whether the trade is driven by politics or simple greed, the toll has been devastating.

然而，无论这种贸易是受到了政治因素的驱动，还是只是因为贪婪，它引发的代价都令人难以承受。

Kachin activists estimate that a sizable majority of Kachin youths are addicts; the World Health Organization has said about 30 percent of injecting drug users in Myitkyina have contracted H.I.V.

克钦的活动人士估计，绝大多数的克钦年轻人吸毒成瘾；世界卫生组织(World Health Organization)称，在密支那，约30%的注射吸毒者感染了艾滋病毒。

With virtually no funding from a central government focused on other priorities, the Kachin rely on church rehabilitation centers that preach a spiritual, if controversial, solution to addiction.

由于基本上无法从中央政府获得资金，克钦邦依靠教堂康复中心，通过布道，为吸毒成瘾提供一种具有宗教意义但却可能引发争议的解决方案。

At one, the Change in Christ center outside Myitkyina, the founder, Thang Raw, runs a treatment program based on rapturous hymnal sessions and baptismal-like dunks in a concrete water tank that are meant to soothe the agony of withdrawal.

在其中的一家教堂康复中心，密支那外的基督改变中心(Change in Christ Center)，创始人当罗(Thang Raw)负责一个治疗项目，它依靠的是令人着迷的赞美诗阅读会，以及在水泥修筑的水槽里浸礼似的仪式，从而缓解戒毒带来的痛苦。

The treatment did little to help Mung Hkwang, 21, who despite the sweltering heat lay shivering recently inside the center’s thatch-roofed dormitory. His ankle, tattooed with a marijuana leaf, was shackled to his bed to keep him from running away to feed his habit.

这种治疗没有为21岁的孟宽(Mung Hkwang)带来多少帮助，不久前的一天，在闷热的天气里，他躺在茅草屋顶的中心宿舍里，浑身发抖。他那纹了大麻叶纹身的脚踝被拷在了床上，这是为了防止他跑出去吸毒。

“It ruined my life and destroyed my education,” he said.

“它毁了我的人生，毁了我的学业，”他说。

Just weeks later, Mr. Mung Hkwang ran away and died from a heroin overdose.

几周之后，孟宽跑了，后来死于海洛因过量。

The Hand of China

中国之手

There are plenty of culprits in Myanmar’s illicit jade and drug trades. But many human rights activists reserve their harshest criticism for China, which they say is content to profit from the mounting chaos that has engulfed Myanmar’s jade industry.

缅甸的非法玉石和毒品贸易中，有很多罪魁祸首。但许多人权活动人士都把最严厉的批评都给了中国。他们说，中国心安理得地从缅甸玉石行业的日益严重的混乱中受益。

“China prioritizes naked greed over any concern for the local population or how the jade is extracted,” said David Mathieson, a senior researcher on Myanmar for Human Rights Watch.

“中国把赤裸裸的贪欲置于当地民众或者玉石开采方式等问题之上，”人权观察组织缅甸问题高级研究员戴维·马西森(David Mathieson)说。

Jade has fired the Chinese imagination for thousands of years. According to legend, the birth of Confucius was prophesied by a unicorn who gave his mother a jade tablet heralding his destiny. To this day, many Chinese believe the stone wards off misfortune and heals the body.

几千年来，玉石一直激发着中国人的想象。传说中，孔子的出生之前，有麒麟献玉书，上面预言了孔子的命运。直到今天，许多中国人还相信这种石头能够辟邪祛病。

“Jade, from ancient to modern times, is a symbol of grace to Chinese people,” said Zhi Feina, 34, a civil servant and repeat customer at the Beijing Colorful Yunnan Company, an opulent three-story jade emporium in Beijing where she was trying on bracelets.

“从古至今，玉对中国人来说都一种优雅的象征，”34岁的公务员支菲娜说。她是北京七彩云南商贸有限公司的常客，这是一家气派的玉石商城，共有三层。此刻她正在商城内试戴手镯。

The state-affiliated Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China estimates that annual sales of jade are as high as $5 billion, more than half of which comes from Burmese jade.

政府旗下的中国珠宝玉石首饰行业协会估计，玉石的年销售额高达50亿美元，其中超过一半来自缅甸翡翠。

In a rare admission, China’s ambassador to Myanmar, Yang Houlan, confirmed that some Chinese are breaking Burmese laws, but he said Beijing was trying to clamp down.

中国驻缅甸大使杨厚兰也罕见地证实，有些中国人违反了缅甸法律，但北京正在努力予以打压。

“There are some businessmen engaged in illegal activities who, attracted by outsize profits, cross the border to mine or smuggle jade,” he said in an email, adding that the two nations have stepped up cooperation on border controls and money-laundering investigations. “But there are some parts of this illicit trade that, like drugs, can’t be stamped out.”

“一些商人受到巨大利益的诱惑从事了不法活动，穿越边境去挖矿或走私翡翠，”他在邮件中说。两国已经加强了边境管控和洗钱调查方面的合作，他接着说，“但有些非法贸易，就像毒品一样，是无法彻底根除的。”

Activists dispute the notion that the governments are serious about cracking down. Without a stronger push for reform from China, they say, they have little hope that conditions will improve.

活动人士不认为两国政府真的想要打压这些活动。他们说，如果中国不大力推动改革，他们不相信情况会出现改善。

So far, there does not appear to be an appetite for major change. During an interview, Shi Hongyue, vice secretary general of the Gems & Jewelry Trade Association of China, refused to even discuss the ills plaguing the Burmese jade trade.

迄今为止，政府似乎没有做出重大改变的意愿。在采访中，中国珠宝玉石首饰行业协会副秘书长史洪岳甚至拒绝谈论缅甸玉石贸易的弊端。

When pressed about heroin at the mines, Mr. Shi was dismissive. “Honestly,” he said, “the amount of drugs they’re using isn’t really that much.”

在被问道矿工使用海洛因的问题时，史洪岳似乎有些不屑。“老实说，”他说，“他们使用的毒品其实没那么多。”