Myanmar says rebel clashes near Chinese border kill dozens

Rebels declare 'unilateral ceasefire' with Myanmar army | Zee News

Yangon: Rebels who have fought Myanmar's army along a rugged border area with China for four months declared a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday, after fighting left scores dead, threatened a nationwide peace pact and spilled over the frontier.

Fighting between government troops and ethnic Chinese rebel fighters has raged in the Kokang region of northern Shan state since early February, causing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, many into China.

Myanmar's airforce has also dropped bombs on Chinese territory, killing several civilians and infuriating Beijing which issued a stern rebuke and carried out live-fire military drills near the border as a warning.

"We stopped fighting unilaterally since this morning... but we are still holding (weapons ) for self-defence. If they (Myanmar army) shoots, we have to defend ourselves," Htun Myat Linn, a spokesman for the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the main insurgent group of the Chinese-speaking Kokang told AFP.

"During four months fighting, about 80 to 90 people were killed from our side. More than 200 people were wounded. We will remain in our positions although the fighting has stopped."

Myanmar's army and government were not immediately reachable for comment on whether they would join the ceasefire in Kokang, a mountainous area which remains cloaked in martial law.

"Fighting has gone on for four months... We worry we are harming the country's general election because of the fighting," Htun Myat Linn added of much-anticipated national polls slated for November.

Myanmar's government is desperate to secure a binding ceasefire with myriad ethnic groups, many of whom have been fighting for decades, ahead of elections later this year.

Kokang rebels were quickly joined by a number of other ethnic insurgent groups and the conflict has threatened to undermine that peace bid.

Kokang has strong bonds with China -- local people speak a Chinese dialect and China's yuan is the common currency -- and tens of thousands of people have crossed the border to flee the fighting.

Beijing was a key backer of Myanmar's military junta while it was under Western sanctions, but President Thein Sein has increased ties with other countries including the United States since launching political reforms in 2011.

The news of the Kokang ceasefire declaration came on the same day as Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

AFP

Myanmar replaces senior air force officer after stray China bomb| Reuters
Mon Jun 29, 2015 7:02am EDT
Myanmar has replaced a high ranking air force officer, officials said on Monday, in a move that was seen as a response to China's anger over stray bomb that fell in Chinese territory and killed four farmers three months ago.

Major General Lwin Oo was replaced as the air force chief-of-staff by Brigadier General Maung Maung Kyaw, a senior official in the President’s Office told Reuters. It is unclear when the switch happened.

Myanmar emerged from 49 years of military rule in 2011 and now has a quasi-civilian government, but high level shifts within its military remain shrouded in secrecy, and officials spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivities.

An air force officer said Lwin Oo was believed to have lost his post because of a bomb that fell on the Chinese side of the border during a campaign against rebels from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) earlier this year.

“As far as we understand, he was removed as a punishment for the air force’s stray bombing on Chinese territory,” the air force officer said.

Myanmar initially denied it was responsible for the bomb, later accepted blame and apologized.

The MNDAA announced a unilateral ceasefire earlier this month.

(Writing by Timothy Mclaughlin; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Many pakistani butthurts will get heart attack by this closer and deeper friend statement

Chinese military research academy praises India's Arjun tank - The Economic Times

@Hindustani78

Many pakistani's will also get butthurt by another initiative by deeper friend in which India is the second biggest share holder in AIIB

Fifty nations, including India, sign agreement on China-led AIIB - The Economic Times

Mr.Nair said:

Many pakistani butthurts will get heart attack by this closer and deeper friend statement

Chinese military research academy praises India's Arjun tank - The Economic Times

@Hindustani78

Many pakistani's will also get butthurt by another initiative by deeper friend in which India is the second biggest share holder in AIIB

Fifty nations, including India, sign agreement on China-led AIIB - The Economic Times

Click to expand...

Not a big deal. When its show time, China will stab India for Pakistan!

Mr.Nair said:

Many pakistani butthurts will get heart attack by this closer and deeper friend statement

Chinese military research academy praises India's Arjun tank - The Economic Times

@Hindustani78

Many pakistani's will also get butthurt by another initiative by deeper friend in which India is the second biggest share holder in AIIB

Fifty nations, including India, sign agreement on China-led AIIB - The Economic Times

Click to expand...

I think the Chinese are more concerned about South China sea and with the Japan, South Korea, United States, Australia , Phillipines, Malaysia all are making one front in that region.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/world...nmars-army-battles-ethnic-rebels_1960093.html

Yangon: Up to 15,000 people may have fled across Myanmar`s border into China in the past month, a United Nations agency has said, as fighting between Myanmar`s Army and ethnic armed groups intensifies.


Aid access to people affected by conflict in the northern states of Kachin and Shan "is getting worse, not better", Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Myanmar, said by e-mail.

The OCHA said in an update on Monday that, as well as the estimated 15,000 new refugees, another 2,400 people had been displaced internally in the northern part of Shan state since November 20, when a coalition of four rebel armies attacked military and police outposts.

The attacks disrupted trade across the border and China has expressed concern over stray shells and bullets landing in its territory.

Weeks of clashes and the new displacements have damaged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi`s hopes of securing peace in the long-running conflicts in the mountainous border areas, a goal she has made her administration`s top priority.

Observers fear Suu Kyi`s fledgling civilian administration is unable to rein in the army, which retains political power and is free from civilian oversight.

"Humanitarian access to conflict areas in Kachin and Shan states is currently worse than at any point in the past few years," Peron said.

"This has seriously affected the ability of humanitarian organisations to provide life-saving aid to tens of thousands of (internally displaced) and other conflict-affected people."

Work by international aid agencies has also been restricted in Myanmar`s northwest for more than two months. Government forces launched "clearance operations" there after armed men, believed to be from the oppressed Rohingya Muslim group, attacked border police.

The Army said it would step up operations in Shan state following the November attacks.

A Myanmar police official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to reporters, told Reuters that government forces had clashed with armed groups in northern Shan at least 170 times in the past month.

In a separate offensive to the north, government forces took control of a strategic hill close to the Kachin Independence Army`s headquarters at Laiza on the Chinese border on Saturday, according to state media.

Shells reportedly landed near a camp for the internally displaced just outside Laiza on Sunday, the OCHA said, citing unconfirmed reports that it could not verify independently.

No casualties were reported but shelters were damaged and about 400 people had to be evacuated, it said.

A Myanmar government spokesman was not immediately available for comment.


First Published: Tuesday, December 20, 2016 - 13:02

http://indianexpress.com/article/wo...ghting-on-myanmars-border-with-china-4469319/
By: AFP | Yangon | Published:January 11, 2017 2:57 pm

The official China Daily said injured people among the 3,000 Myanmar citizens have been taken to hospital in the southwestern province of Yunnan, which shares a long border with Myanmar.

Thousands of people fled heavy fighting on Myanmar’s northern border with China overnight, activists said today, as the government blocked a senior UN official from visiting the area. Clashes between the army and ethnic minority militias in Myanmar’s borderlands have intensified in recent months, undercutting Aung San Suu Kyi’s vow to bring peace to the country since her party took power in March.

Dozens have been killed and thousands displaced since fresh fighting erupted between the Myanmar military and the ethnic minority Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in November. The unrest has rippled across Shan and Kachin states, threatening the next round of peace talks between the government, military and ethnic groups scheduled for February.

Dashi Naw Lawn, secretary of the Kachin Network Development Foundation, said the army launched airstrikes near the border town of Laiza yesterday.

“There was a big fight yesterday and the Myanmar army used planes to attack the area around Laiza,” he told AFP today.

“The fighting is getting worse and worse.”

Kachin activist Khon Ja said some 3,600 people had fled from two IDP camps overnight to escape the violence.

She cited testimonies from escapees saying around a third had crossed a river into China, while the rest were stranded on the Myanmar side.

The UN’s relief agency said this week that 2,700 displaced people had been moved to new camps because of the clashes, warning there was not enough shelter to protect them against dropping temperatures.

Myanmar’s army said its troops have killed seven KIA rebels and seized several bases over the weekend.

The growing crisis comes as UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee was barred from visiting the conflict area this week as part of a 12-day trip to probe escalating violence in the country.

“She was not allowed to travel to Hpakant and Laiza,” said her spokesman Aye Win.

On Friday she is expected to visit Rakhine state to probe claims the army has been carrying out severe human rights abuses against the Muslim Rohingya minority — allegations the government has denied.

http://indianexpress.com/article/wo...-set-for-biggest-leadership-shake-up-4475045/
Myanmar’s strongest ethnic armed group is set for its biggest leadership shake-up in a quarter century, senior sources told Reuters, raising the prospect of a period of instability in a group that is key to Aung San Suu Kyi’s signature peace process. The United Wa State Army (UWSA) boasts some 30,000 soldiers who control a secretive, China-dominated statelet the size of Belgium in the remote hills on Myanmar’s eastern border.

This year the group’s political wing, the United Wa State Party (UWSP), is holding elections for the first time since 1992, with at least some of the old guard who have led the statelet since its 1989 formation set to stand down, three senior Wa officials said.

“The election will also include the chairman, but whether he will be replaced is unknown,” said one of the sources. “Those who are sick or old would retire. The party is going to cultivate a new group of young talents,” the person added, referring to the party’s top decision-making Politburo.

A second Wa official with direct knowledge of the matter described the vote as an “earth-shattering” event within the reclusive Wa State hierarchy.

Reuters visited the self-proclaimed Wa State in October – a rare trip by a major international news organisation – where officials described for the first time its inner workings.

The reshuffle could pose a new headache for Suu Kyi’s nine-month-old civilian administration, already grappling with escalating clashes between government forces and other ethnic armed groups along the mountainous border with China and a military crackdown in the Muslim-majority northwest that has sent 65,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh.

After sweeping to power following a November 2015 election, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has made ending the ethnic conflicts that kept Myanmar in a state of perpetual civil war through decades of military rule a priority.

As the biggest ethnic army, the UWSA will be crucial to the success of that goal, but the group has so far declined to actively participate in the peace process launched by Suu Kyi last year.

“Suu Kyi’s peace process is almost impossible without Wa’s participation,” said Yangon-based political analyst Soe Naing, a former member of the Central Committee of the UWSP. “Wa is a mediator between government and several ethnic armed groups who are still fighting against the Myanmar army.”

ROTATING LEADER

The Wa State, which has not fought the Myanmar army in years but has declined to disarm, is currently led by UWSP Chairman Pao Yu Hsiang, a veteran of the Communist Party of Burma, which disintegrated and split into various ethnic factions in the late 1980s.

Pao is in poor health that prevents him from travelling, but remains the ultimate decision-maker, three sources close to the leadership said.

The UWSP operates on a rotating duty leader system. This means the four most senior leaders in the Politburo, Deputy Chairman Hsiao Ming Liang, Defence Minister Chao Chung Tan and two other top leaders, rotate on a monthly basis. Pao no longer participates due to his sickness, but makes key decisions.

The party has about 15,000 members and closely resembles China’s Communist Party leadership structure.

There are nine standing members of the Politburo. Wei Hsueh Kang, who is wanted by the United States on drug trafficking charges, and his brother Wei Hseuh Yun run the southern part of the state and are counted as its eighth and ninth members, at the bottom of the hierarchy, according to the two sources close to the leadership.

The second rung of decision-making is the Central Committee with up to 30 additional members, followed by a larger body of some 700 party representatives, who would take part in the rare leadership change vote in mid-2017.

Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based analyst for security consulting firm IHS-Jane’s, said it was important to watch for potential rifts between different clans within the UWSP.

One constant is likely to remain China’s heavy influence in the Chinese-speaking Wa territory.

“We should send the new generation of leaders to China for its comprehensive training of political economy,” said one of the senior officials, who will stand down after the elections. “That would help them master their important job in the future.”

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1058606/world
YANGON: The head of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic rebel group has warned that fighting in the country’s restive borderlands has reached a critical point, threatening to derail the government’s wobbling push for peace.

Bao Youxiang, chairman of the Wa, told dozens of armed ethnic leaders they must forge a “new path to peace” as the government’s efforts to expand a cease-fire signed with some groups in 2015 have faltered, according to a leaked version of a speech seen by AFP.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been pushing to expand the deal, known as the NCA, since her party took power a year ago in a bid to end the decades-long conflicts rumbling across the country’s borderlands.
But clashes between the army and ethnic minority fighters along the China border have intensified, displacing an estimated 20,000 people and threatening the second round of peace talks slated for next month.

“The ethnic fighting happening today is heavier than ever,” Bao told ethnic leaders gathered in Pangkham, the de facto capital of the UWSA’s territories, on Wednesday, according to the transcript.

“War in northern Kachin state and northern Shan state along the Myanmar-China border is getting worse day by day. The NCA being discussed between some ethnic organizations and Myanmar’s government has brought no solution.

“The many conflicts along Myanmar’s road to peace... mean the dawn can’t be seen.”

The United Wa State Army, also known as the Wa, is the most powerful of the country’s ethnic rebel factions with an estimated 25,000 heavily armed troops and strong ties to China.

Its delegates stormed out of the first round of Suu Kyi’s peace talks last August over a spat about their accreditation.

The group is also accused of producing and trafficking huge amounts of methamphetamine and heroin from their own mini-state on the Chinese border, and buying weapons with the proceeds.

Around 40 delegates from eight ethnic rebel armies gathered in Pangkham this week ahead of Suu Kyi’s next round of peace talks, which were delayed until next month after one group threatened to boycott.

Among the attendees of the USWA-led meeting were members of the Northern Alliance, a collection of four ethnic armed groups that has been locked in bitter conflict with the army since November.

The UN’s rights envoy Yanghee Lee warned last month that the humanitarian situation in Kachin state — a focal point of recent fighting — was “now worse than at any point in the past few years.”

Myanmar, Myanmar ...
How long will it take us to be bullied by such a small country?
If we take "decisive measures" how does the international community think of us?
Bully the weak?

Piru Niqqa said:

God bless our Burmese brothers, China is responsible for funding these rebels. Don't trust them. @Aung Zaya

Click to expand...

http://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/OldNewsPage/?Id=9011&Stay/Out/Of/Our/Territory:/Suu/Kyi/to/India

Your Burmese brothers said —— India army go back to India.

http://aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/ethnic-rebels-not-to-sign-peace-deal-with-myanmar-govt/758954

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar

Ethnic rebel groups have decided not to sign Myanmar government’s ceasefire agreement, despite the repeated calls from State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi over past weeks.

Leaders from seven ethnic armed organizations -- none of whom signed the government-sponsored Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in 2015 – held a three-day meeting in a border town of Pangkham in southeastern Shan state.

After the meeting, the groups said they agreed nine points including finding a new way to forge peace instead of signing the NCA, a landmark peace deal between the previous government and 8 out of the 15 rebel groups invited.

“Due to the lacks of all-inclusiveness, we believe signing the NCA can’t bring the peace,” the groups said in a statement late Friday.

“Instead we must forge a new path to peace,” it said.

The groups include United Wa State Army (UWSA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Kachin Independence Army (KIA), Shan State Army-North (SSA-N), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Arakan Army (AA).

Since independence from Britain in 1948, Myanmar (then Burma) has seen over a half-century of armed conflict involving ethnic rebels.

Replacing the military junta in 2011, former President Thein Sein’s administration started peace talks with rebels, which led to the NCA. However, several major rebel groups refrained.

Myanmar still witnesses some of the fiercest fighting between certain rebel groups and the military although the Suu Kyi-led civilian government took power in March, 2016.

Aung San Suu Kyi repeatedly called on the rebels to join the peace process by signing the NCA.

Myanmar is to hold second meeting of the Union Peace Conference next month.

http://zeenews.india.com/world/at-l...hes-on-myanmar-china-border-army_1982060.html

AFP | Last Updated: Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - 14:25
Naypyidaw: At least 160 people have died in around three months of clashes between the military and ethnic armed groups in Myanmar`s northern state of Shan, a senior Army official said Tuesday, threatening peace talks set for next month.


More than 20,000 people have been displaced since fighting between the Army and several armed ethnic groups erupted near the border with China in late November.

Giving the Army`s first comprehensive toll from the fighting, the chief of the general staff said 74 soldiers, 15 police, 13 government militia fighters and 13 civilians have died in the violence.

"We have 45 dead bodies of enemies and arrested four," General Mya Tun Oo told reporters in the capital, Naypyidaw.

He said hundreds more rebels may have been killed based on pictures of a mass funeral.

The update comes as Myanmar`s government prepares to hold the second round of peace talks aiming to end the decades-long conflicts rumbling across the country`s borderlands.

Days earlier eight armed ethnic groups signed a statement saying they would never agree to the government-backed ceasefire deal, known as the NCA.


First Published: Tuesday, February 28, 2017 - 14:24

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/worl...-bordering-china-after-30-killed-by-army.html

Yangon: Thousands were fleeing a Myanmar town bordering China on Tuesday after at least 30 people were killed in fighting between the army and ethnic rebels as Beijing called for an immediate ceasefire between the two sides.

The violence is some of the most intense to rattle the Chinese-speaking Kokang region since clashes in 2015 left scores dead and forced tens of thousands to flee into China.

The area is in northeastern Shan state, which has seen repeated bouts of heavy fighting between the army and a band of well-armed ethnic minority militias since November, undercutting a government peace bid.

The fighting has also raised fears of a repeat of 2015, when the displaced flooded across the border into China, raising tensions with Beijing.

In a statement released Tuesday, the army said it used heavy artillery to repel rebels who swept into Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang region, before dawn on Monday.

Insurgents from the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) "failed" in their attempt to take Laukkai, the army said, adding civilians and "some army officers" died in a series of clashes around the town.

An army source requesting anonymity told AFP that "about 7,000 local residents are fleeing to the China side because of fighting".

On Tuesday Beijing appealed for both sides to halt the fighting.

"Relevant parties should cease fire immediately and restore order to the border areas as soon as possible," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters.

The rebels, who were said to be wearing police uniforms when they made the surprise raid, suffered the heaviest losses with the military recovering 20 charred bodies it says belonged to fallen insurgents.

Communications have been cut around Laukkai but fighting continued on Tuesday morning, according to the leader of another rebel group allied with the insurgents in Kokang.

"Almost all residents from Laukkai town are fleeing," said Brigadier General Nyo Tun Aung from the Arakan Army (AA), estimating that thousands had left.

Many rebel groups in the border region share close cultural ties with China, speaking Chinese dialects and using the country's yuan currency.

Observers believe Beijing holds significant sway over the ethnic fighters and has a key role to play in peace talks that Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has tried to revive since coming to power in 2015.

The next round of negotiations is slated for March, but the date has slipped several times.

The Northern Alliance, a coalition of armed ethnic groups that includes the MNDAA and AA, has yet to join the peace process or sign a ceasefire that was reached with a myriad of other militias in 2015.

http://indianexpress.com/article/wo...ents-near-china-border-official-says-4560230/

Thousands of people have fled clashes between the Myanmar military and ethnic rebels along the border with China, a Chinese official said, as fighting threatened leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s top goal of reaching peace with minorities. About 30 people were killed on Monday in the attack staged by ethnic Chinese insurgents in the town of Laukkai, 800 km (500 miles) northeast of commercial hub Yangon, prompting thousands to seek refuge across the border in camps in China.

Suu Kyi’s nearly one-year-old government is increasingly besieged by ethnic rebels, grappling with an alliance of militias in Myanmar’s north and a new insurgency by Rohingyas rebelling against decades of persecution in the northwest.

“Thousands of people have crossed into China,” said the Chinese government official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Hotel workers in Nan San, a town abutting Myanmar’s restive Kokang region where the fighting is taking place, described disoriented people moving rapidly into the town.

“There are so many people here and the traffic is chaotic. There are thousands of refugees here and they look frightened. Some of them brought suitcases with them, while some only brought some light clothes,” said a staff member at the Golden Star hotel in Nan San who identified himself by his surname Li.

The 42-year-old owner of the Fuyuan Hotel, who identified himself by his surname Yang, said: “All we can do is to help them and give them food. Chinese people here are very worried about our safety.”

Yang compared the scenes to those in 2015, when tens of thousands escaped fighting between the army and the predominantly ethnic Chinese Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) – the
same group that attacked on Monday.

MNDAA is part of the Northern Alliance, a coalition of rebel groups comprising one of Myanmar’s most powerful militias, the Kachin Independence Army, and two smaller groups that have been in a stand-off with Myanmar’s military since clashes in Kokang two years ago.

On the Myanmar side of the border, some 300 people were waiting to be transferred to a camp for internally displaced people in the town of Chinshwehaw near Laukkai, said Saw Shwe Myint, an official from the Myanmar Red Cross in Laukkai.


“We are discussing with our partner organisations how to transfer these people to Chinshwehaw,” he said. About 200 people were transferred on Tuesday.

Those in the camp comprised local residents and migrant workers from other parts of Myanmar, Saw Shwe Myint said. “I do not hear the fighting right now but I heard shooting this morning,” he said. China called for an immediate ceasefire between the two sides on Tuesday, urging them to resolve their differences through peaceful means.