Border unease rises over conflict
Bigger role for China eyed in ending Myanmar clashes
Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday urged armed groups in northern Myanmar to join the government’s peace process by signing the Nationwide Ceasefire Accord ( NCA) to immediately end the conflicts, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.
She stressed that taking up arms would not lead to the people’s desired goals.
Experts have also called for more frequent contact between China and Myanmar, as residents on both sides of the border expressed unease over the conflicts.
Armed conflicts broke out in the border area of northern Myanmar’s Shan state early Sunday morning.
“We have a store in Muse, but now we have to close it and live with our relatives in China,” a Myanmar citizen told the Global Times on the way to Ruili, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province. “It’s been a headache. We don’t even have clothes here.”
A businessman from Northeast China told the Global Times on Thursday that he came to Ruili to import fruit from Myanmar to Beijing, but the conflicts have affected his business. “Usually, more trucks with Myanmar watermelon enter China, but now there is only one truck.”
“They [ the Burmese] fight from time to time. Of course we hope it could stop, but how?” the owner of a Dongzhao store, surnamed Zhang at Wanding, a border town in Dai- Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture in Dehong on the Chinese side, told the Global Times on Thursday.
More than a thousand Burmese are now living in a camp in Wanding guarded and managed by personnel from the public security and border defense departments, armed forces and the emergency center.
Some Burmese in the camp told the Global Times on Tuesday that they will return to Myanmar after the situation calms down, because they have farms to look after.
However, the conflicts in Pang Sai, a border town near Wanding and home to most of the people in the camp, continued. Schools in Wanding have likewise been suspended for a week.
“The armed ethnic groups in northern Myanmar are seeking China’s support because government troops got too close to them,” Gu Xiaosong, head of Southeast Asian Studies at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sci- ences, told the Global Times on Thursday.
China, however, will by no means tolerate armed ethnic groups’ attempt to draw China deep into Myanmar’s internal affairs, such as their blatant call for Chinese citizens of the same ethnic minorities to join their war against the Myanmar government, Gu said.
Gu said China can frequently advise the Myanmar military to provide a certain amount of autonomy to the armed groups to end fighting so long as they respect the Aung San Suu Kyiled government.
China’s aim of getting the Myanmar government, military and armed ethnic groups back to the negotiating table would help resolve the conflicts, as China is committed to playing a responsible role in maintaining a peaceful development in its surrounding areas, Gu said.