Myanmar’s massive jade business is helping to drive deadly armed conflict and threatens the peace efforts that Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi has made her government’s top priority, a new film from NGO Global Witness shows...

As the country prepares for a landmark national peace conference on 24 May, Jade and the Generals shows how a fair peace deal could see powerful army families and companies losing out on vast profits from jade. Kachin State in the north is home to mines which produced jade worth up to $31billion in 2014 - it is also the site of some of the worst fighting. The film includes powerful testimony from refugees and local leaders calling for an end to the fighting and reform of the trade that is driving it...

The film launch coincides with a call from influential Kachin and transparency and natural resource-focused civil society groups for the forthcoming peace talks to focus on fair, transparent and accountable management of natural resources in order to forge lasting peace. The signatories are calling for issues including allocation of resources, environmental and social safeguards and the fair sharing of benefits to be high on the agenda...