Thousands of Myanmar refugees flee violence to China
Tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar’s ethnic region of Kokang have reportedly crossed the border into neighboring China’s Yunnan Province over the past week as fighting rages between rebel forces and government troops.
According to China’s state-owned news site, Yunnan.cn, some 30,000 to 50,000 refugees entered the southwestern Chinese province to escape airstrikes and clashes between Myanmarese ethnic rebels and Naypyidaw’s armed forces.
The news agency added that China had offered the refugees food and medical assistance.
The conflict between government forces and Kokang rebels intensified on February 9 after nearly six years of peace in the region.
The rebels say they are seeking autonomy for Kokang and its ethnic Han Chinese people. However, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein said earlier in the day that the military was “protecting sovereignty and ensuring territorial integrity.”
Myanmar’s government said in a statement late Monday that it would “continue to perform actions in the Kokang region that are necessary for the safety and security of local people, as well as peace, stability and the rule of law.”
Dozens have been killed on both sides in the fighting.
The Kokang region has been relatively calm since 2009, when Myanmar’s army launched an offensive against the regional rebels, forcing more than 30,000 people to flee over the border into China.
Since Sein came to power back in 2011, the government has been trying to reach peace deals with rebels in the country’s resource-rich regions.
Although the government has already signed preliminary agreements with some ethnic groups, fighting continues to break out as ethnic minority groups have demanded control over timber, jade and other natural resources in their territories.
Myanmar, which has over 130 recognized ethnic minorities, has been plagued with sporadic conflicts in its border regions since independence in 1948, in what became the world’s longest civil war.
SZH/MKA/SS
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