AP

Posted: 2007-11-27 02:56:40

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – More than 2,000 foreign merchants attended Myanmar’s major gems auction, state-media reported Tuesday, despite international calls to boycott the sale after the military junta’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in September.

The auction ended Monday after more than 3,500 lots of precious stones were sold, the New Light of Myanmar said, but did not report how much money was made.

The amount of money was not revealed because it was much lower than in previous years, said an official at the state-run Myanmar Gem Enterprise on condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisal.

The 13-day event was attended by more 3,600 gem merchants, including 2,285 foreign merchants, and held in the country’s largest city of Yangon, the paper reported.

Myanmar is one of the biggest jade and gem producing countries in the world and the source of up to 90 percent of the world’s rubies. International auctions are a major revenue earner for the regime.

Myanmar has held gem emporiums since 1964. The sale that ran from Nov. 14 to Nov. 26 was the first since the junta’s bloody September crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that sparked international outcry.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Myanmar Gems Enterprise earned nearly US$300 million (euro202.7 million) from gem sales in fiscal year 2006-2007.

Merchants from China and Hong Kong constitute the largest contingent of buyers at the auctions.

Due to U.S. economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar in July 2003, which froze all U.S. dollar remittances into the country, international business transactions are done in euros.