Myanmar citizens flee to China
Clashes push 20,000 refugees over border
BEIJING: More than 20,000 people from Myanmar have fled across the border into China, the Chinese government said, following months of violence between ethnic rebel groups and government forces, including fighting this week that killed at least 30 people.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China is calling for an immediate ceasefire and that authorities in the border area have offered shelter and assistance to the refugees. “We condemn the conflict which brought disaster to innocent people,” Mr Geng told a regular news briefing.
This week, the Myanmar government said at least 30 people were killed in fighting triggered by a pre-dawn attack by an ethnic rebel group. It said the attack by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) on the government-controlled town of Laukkai killed five policemen and five civilians.
Mr Geng said China is highly concerned about the situation. “We call on all warring factions to be restrained, cease fire immediately, refrain from stoking up the clash and restore peace and stability to the border area with effective measures as soon as possible,” he said.
This week’s fighting was the most dramatic recent violence in the area, where the government and rebels have been contending for territory. Similar fighting has been taking place further north in Kachin state involving other ethnic rebel groups. The rebels say they are countering attacks by the government.
Fierce fighting between the government and the rebel group, which represents the Kokang, an ethnic Chinese minority, last occurred in 2015, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing across the border into China.
The MNDAA is led by ethnic Chinese Peng Jiasheng, who once was chief of the officially sanctioned Kokang administrative zone but was ousted from power in 2009. In April 1969, Kokang province was established with Mr Peng as its leader. For 20 years he controlled Kokang as a member of the Communist Party of Burma. In 1989, however, the CPB split up and Mr Peng established the MNDAA. After this he signed a ceasefire with the junta, which allowed the Kokang army to retain their weapons, and established an autonomous Kokang region as the “First Special Region” of Myanmar.
Mr Peng has played a large role in drug production in Myanmar. According to Bertil Lintner, he established the first heroin factory in Kokang during the 1970s and continued trafficking heroin for at least 20 years. In 1990, he legalised opium planting in Kokang. Later, however, he said he opposed the drug trade. The Kokang government declared the region “drug-free” in 2003.
The ceasefire with the military junta was broken in August 2009 after the government sent troops to conduct a drug raid on a factory suspected of being a drug front and on Mr Peng’s own house. At the same time, Mr Peng was challenged from within the army. The confrontation with junta troops eventually led to violent conflict. Mr Peng was driven out by his competitors from within the army.
He reappeared in an interview with China’s state-run Global Times newspaper in December 2014. He said he would retake Kokang from Myanmar army control. Armed clashes between his troops and Myanmar armies erupted in February 2015.