August 29, 2009
By THOMAS FULLER
BANGKOK — After two decades of relative calm in northern Myanmar, fighting has broken out between the central government and upland ethnic groups, sending thousands of refugees fleeing into neighboring China
The fighting in Shan State, including two battles on Thursday near the Myanmar town of Kunglong, threatens to undo a fragile patchwork of cease-fire agreements that brought calm to the mountainous northern areas in the 1990s after decades of civil war.
The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that refugees were fleeing into Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar. An estimate by the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pressure group that opposes Myanmar’s central government, put the number of refugees at around 10,000. Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.
The refugee crisis prompted China to make a rare comment about the internal affairs of one of its neighbors. Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that the government in Beijing “hopes that Myanmar can properly deal with its domestic issue to safeguard the regional stability of its bordering area,” Xinhua reported. She also said China was monitoring the situation and had expressed concern about the safety of its citizens in the area.
More than a dozen armed ethnic groups are being pressed by Myanmar’s central government to give up their weapons and become border guards, an effort that appears to have galvanized the groups’ opposition toward the central government.
“In my 30 years’ experience on the border this is the first time I’ve seen such unity among the ethnic groups,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former soldier in the defunct Burmese Communist Party who monitors the conflict from his home in Ruili, along the China-Myanmar border.
Fighting between government forces and soldiers from the Kokang ethnic group took place Thursday morning in the village of Yan Lon Kyaik, only a few hundred yards from the border with China, Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said. It resumed Thursday evening in the village of Chin Swe Haw, where three Kokang fighters and several dozen government troopers were killed.
There was no way to independently confirm the accounts of the fighting, which occurred in a remote area along the border. The Kokang are reportedly receiving help from other ethnic groups.
The Myanmar military moved troops into the area earlier this month, saying they would crack down on the illegal drug business, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
If the Myanmar military continues its advance, Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said, “there will be so much bloodshed.” The central government, he said, has sent reinforcements to the area.
Various ethnic groups control large pockets of territory in the northern borderland areas and risk losing their control over the lucrative trade in timber, jade, gemstones and, in some cases, heroin and methamphetamine.
The Kokang are allied with the most heavily armed group along the Chinese border, the United Wa State Army, which has about 20,000 soldiers and is known to have large-caliber weapons, including field artillery and antitank missiles.
Farther north, the Kachin Independence Army has around 4,000 men under arms.
“This Kokang fighting is not only a Kokang problem — it has become a wider issue,” said Brang Lai, a local official in Laiza, a town on the Chinese border controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization.
“The border guard issue is unacceptable for all the armed groups. All the armed groups have a common agreement to help each other.”
The fighting comes as Myanmar’s military government prepares to adopt a new and disputed Constitution next year.
“They want to show military victory before the elections next year,” said Win Min, a lecturer in contemporary Burmese politics at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In early June the government launched a successful offensive against ethnic Karen insurgents along the border with Thailand.
The elections and new Constitution would nominally return Myanmar to civilian governance after four and a half decades of military rule. The junta is proposing a unitary state, but the ethnic groups are loath to give up their hard-won autonomy and fear domination by the majority Burman ethnic group, most of whom are Buddhist and today hold the reins of power in Myanmar’s military junta.
“My sense is that the fighting will continue and could spread to other areas,” said Aung Din, the executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/world/asia/29myanmar.html?_r=1
By THOMAS FULLER
BANGKOK — After two decades of relative calm in northern Myanmar, fighting has broken out between the central government and upland ethnic groups, sending thousands of refugees fleeing into neighboring China
The fighting in Shan State, including two battles on Thursday near the Myanmar town of Kunglong, threatens to undo a fragile patchwork of cease-fire agreements that brought calm to the mountainous northern areas in the 1990s after decades of civil war.
The official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that refugees were fleeing into Yunnan Province, which borders Myanmar. An estimate by the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a pressure group that opposes Myanmar’s central government, put the number of refugees at around 10,000. Myanmar was formerly known as Burma.
The refugee crisis prompted China to make a rare comment about the internal affairs of one of its neighbors. Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that the government in Beijing “hopes that Myanmar can properly deal with its domestic issue to safeguard the regional stability of its bordering area,” Xinhua reported. She also said China was monitoring the situation and had expressed concern about the safety of its citizens in the area.
More than a dozen armed ethnic groups are being pressed by Myanmar’s central government to give up their weapons and become border guards, an effort that appears to have galvanized the groups’ opposition toward the central government.
“In my 30 years’ experience on the border this is the first time I’ve seen such unity among the ethnic groups,” said Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former soldier in the defunct Burmese Communist Party who monitors the conflict from his home in Ruili, along the China-Myanmar border.
Fighting between government forces and soldiers from the Kokang ethnic group took place Thursday morning in the village of Yan Lon Kyaik, only a few hundred yards from the border with China, Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said. It resumed Thursday evening in the village of Chin Swe Haw, where three Kokang fighters and several dozen government troopers were killed.
There was no way to independently confirm the accounts of the fighting, which occurred in a remote area along the border. The Kokang are reportedly receiving help from other ethnic groups.
The Myanmar military moved troops into the area earlier this month, saying they would crack down on the illegal drug business, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
If the Myanmar military continues its advance, Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said, “there will be so much bloodshed.” The central government, he said, has sent reinforcements to the area.
Various ethnic groups control large pockets of territory in the northern borderland areas and risk losing their control over the lucrative trade in timber, jade, gemstones and, in some cases, heroin and methamphetamine.
The Kokang are allied with the most heavily armed group along the Chinese border, the United Wa State Army, which has about 20,000 soldiers and is known to have large-caliber weapons, including field artillery and antitank missiles.
Farther north, the Kachin Independence Army has around 4,000 men under arms.
“This Kokang fighting is not only a Kokang problem — it has become a wider issue,” said Brang Lai, a local official in Laiza, a town on the Chinese border controlled by the Kachin Independence Organization.
“The border guard issue is unacceptable for all the armed groups. All the armed groups have a common agreement to help each other.”
The fighting comes as Myanmar’s military government prepares to adopt a new and disputed Constitution next year.
“They want to show military victory before the elections next year,” said Win Min, a lecturer in contemporary Burmese politics at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In early June the government launched a successful offensive against ethnic Karen insurgents along the border with Thailand.
The elections and new Constitution would nominally return Myanmar to civilian governance after four and a half decades of military rule. The junta is proposing a unitary state, but the ethnic groups are loath to give up their hard-won autonomy and fear domination by the majority Burman ethnic group, most of whom are Buddhist and today hold the reins of power in Myanmar’s military junta.
“My sense is that the fighting will continue and could spread to other areas,” said Aung Din, the executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/world/asia/29myanmar.html?_r=1
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