UN says 30,000 flee Myanmar amid fears of civil war
Junta Renews ‘Divide-and-Rule’ Tactic in Shan State
US congressional delegation in Myanmar for foreign policy review
Civil war feared in Myanmar
Burmese Ceasefire Breaks Down
Report: Two-decade cease-fire in Myanmar is violated
Burma fighting raises civil war fears: analysts
Myanmar PM meets Chinese vice minister of commerce
China urges Myanmar to maintain stability
Q+A-China’s complex relationship with Myanmar
China urges Myanmar to end conflict in border area
Myanmar Takes Rebel-Held Town Near China Oil Projects
Fighting ups civil war fears
Lawyers to appeal Suu Kyi sentence
New US policy is important for Burma’s future
Burmese Exile Government Urges Washington to Stay Firm on Sanctions
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UN says 30,000 flee Myanmar amid fears of civil war
AFP: 17 mins ago

BANGKOK (AFP) – Fighting between Myanmar’s isolated ruling junta and rebel ethnic armies in the remote northeast has driven up to 30,000 refugees into China, the UN said, as analysts warned of a full-scale civil war.

As thousands fled across its border, China issued a rare admonishment to its southern neighbour and close ally, urging it to resolve the conflict that has broken out in Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Myanmar’s Shan state.

A battle between the Kokang rebel group and the government’s army began on Thursday in violation of a 20-year ceasefire, according to the US Campaign for Burma (USCB), which uses Myanmar’s former name.

The mass exodus began after Myanmar’s junta deployed troops in the region on August 8 and now “only elderly peoples are left at homes”, while at least one Myanmar policeman was reportedly killed during the battle, the USCB added.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which is liaising with local Chinese authorities on the displaced people’s needs, said up to 30,000 crossed into the Chinese border town of Nansan, in southwestern Yunnan province.

“We have been informed that local authorities in Yunnan province have already provided emergency shelter, food and medical care to the refugees,” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said.

A statement from the Chinese foreign ministry said it “hopes that Myanmar can appropriately solve its relevant internal problems and safeguard the stability of the China-Myanmar border”.

“We also urge Myanmar to protect the safety and legal rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar,” said spokeswoman Jiang Yu in the statement, posted on the ministry’s website.

China is Myanmar’s main source of military hardware and a major consumer of its vast natural resources, despite Western concerns over the military-ruled nation’s rights record.

Chinese state media reported Friday that Beijing had increased its number of armed police along the Myanmar border.

The English-language Global Times, citing local officials, said that Myanmar nationals were still crossing the border into Yunnan province, without giving a specific figure.

Another ethnic group, the United Wa State Army, has now reportedly joined the Kokang forces’ fight against the Myanmar junta, according to Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News.

“People say they have been hearing gunshots and explosions,” he told AFP, warning that other groups currently under ceasefire agreements could join in.

“If the Burmese army is returning to a reconciliatory stance it might get better, but if not it might be blown into a full-scale civil war.”

He added that the government was trying to create stability ahead of elections scheduled in 2010 but warned: “It will be the opposite.”

David Mathieson, a Myanmar analyst at Human Rights Watch, agreed full-scale civil war was “a very real fear.”

“This could potentially be the flashpoint that draws in several other groups to the resumption of open conflict,” he said.

Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, has signed ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups.

The USCB said before the battle that the Kokang forces — known as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army — had split, with one faction joining the government’s troops occupying Laogai, capital of the Kokang region.

The other faction had refused to obey the junta’s order to place its troops under army control.

Peng Jiasheng, leader of the rebel group, issued a statement via USCB late Thursday on the “urgent need of peaceful and patient discussion between all parties concerned.”

Refugees began to flee three weeks ago after Myanmar sent dozens of military police to crack down on a gun-repair factory suspected of being a front for drugs production, sparking fear among locals, Chinese media said.

According to the USCB, the junta has since deployed thousands of troops to the region and announced that Peng Jiasheng and his family were fugitives wanted for narcotics production.
http://news. yahoo.com/ s/afp/20090828/ wl_asia_afp/ myanmarchinaunre stethnic

NEWS ANALYSIS
Junta Renews ‘Divide-and-Rule’ Tactic in Shan State
By WAI MOE       Friday, August 28, 2009

Two decades of ceasefire agreements between the Burmese junta and northern ethnic armies have collapsed as armed clashes broke out on Thursday when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and its ethnic allies opened fire on Burmese troops around the Kokang capital of Laogai.

Government troops took over Laogai on Monday without firing a single shot.

According to informed border sources, skirmishes continued from Thursday morning into Friday. Government troops fired artillery rounds into MNDAA positions, reportedly killing one Chinese civilian. One government policeman also has died, sources said.

Border guards and the regime’s constitution

Tension between the regime and ethnic ceasefire groups in northern Shan state increased steadily over the past few months as the junta began pressuring cease-fire groups to disarm and transform into a border guard force in April, in accordance with the new 2008 constitution which calls for all ethnic armies to be under the control of the regime.

Cease-fire groups such as the Wa, Kachin, Shan State Army [North] and Kokang have all rejected the guard force proposal.

Wa and Kokang delegates who attended the military-sponsored National Convention in Rangoon spoke out against the clause in the draft constitution, saying it limited the autonomy of ethnic minorities.

Aung Moe Zaw, a secretary with the exiled umbrella opposition National Council of Union of Burma, said the recent conflict clearly grows out of the flawed approval process of the constitution in 2008.

The ethnic minorities also are uphappy about the junta’s so-called “7-steps to democracy” process leading up to the 2010 national election.

Why the Kokang?

Why did the junta’s generals choose to confront the Kokang leaders first?

The Kokang army, with about 800 troops, is weaker than other ethnic armies, and its leaders clearly opposed placing their troops under government control. The Kokang are widely known to be heavily involved in the illicit drug trade.

Compared to the 20,000 Wa soldiers in the UWSA and the 4,000 Kachin soldiers with the KIA, the Kokang army presents an easy target.

The regime first launched a public relations offensive, linking Peng Jiasheng to the illicit drug trade. Bertil Linter, a Swedish journalist, noted the irony of the charge, considering that until recently Peng Jiasheng was always wheeled out to meet foreigner visitors including UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and presented as “a leader of the local nationals.”

The regime was also well aware of internal conflict among the Kokang leaders, and when Peng Jiasheng abandoned his headquarters in Laogai, it quickly put together a pro-regime Kokang faction to challenge the leadership of the MNDAA. It is a proven regime divide-and-rule tactic that was used successfully on Karen rebels in 1995.

“They [the junta] will replay the old game—create a proxy group then say two things: it’s a dispute over drugs and other criminal acts and it has nothing to do with the Tatamadaw  [the armed forces],” said Min Zin, a US-based contributor to The Irrawaddy.

China’s role

China has repeatedly called for political stability on the northern border and for national reconciliation, and it is worried about a migration of refugees into Chinese territory.

It is difficult to gauge how China will deal with the armed clashes, but it has offered political support in the past to ethnic Wa, Kachin and Kokang along the border, while also supporting the junta.

On Thursday, the Secretary 1 of the junta, Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, met with the visiting Chinese Deputy Commerce Minister Chen Jian in Naypyidaw.

Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the information minister and an important member of the junta, met with the Chinese Cultural Counselor Charge d’ Affairs, Gao Hua, in the capital on Wednesday. Chinese officials were expected to raise the issue about the conflict along the northern border opposite Yunnan Province.

It is believed that senior Chinese and Burmese officials continue to hold meetings in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan, according to sources on the border.

During the meetings, Chinese officials reportedly have warned their Burmese counterparts, charging that Burmese soldiers crossed into Chinese territory this week.

According to the state-run China Daily, Song Qingrun, a senior researcher with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said that the situation on the border will have no impact on China-Burma relations.

Song, however, added it will hurt local businesses and border trade as more than 10,000 Chinese businessmen and workers live in Kokang-controlled territory where up to 90 percent of the businesses are owned by Chinese.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

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US congressional delegation in Myanmar for foreign policy review
Asia-Pacific News

Aug 28, 2009, 12:44 GMT

Yangon – Three staff members of the US House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee met Friday with leaders of Myanmar’s main opposition party.

‘They wanted to know the political situation of Myanmar and also the health of the political prisoners, including the condition of Daw [Madame] Aung San Suu Kyi,’ National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win said after meeting with the three Americans, Lynne Weil, Jessica Lee and Dennis Halpin.

A US embassy official in Yangon denied that the trip was a follow-up to this month’s visit of US Senator Jim Webb in which he secured the freedom of American national John William Yettaw.

Webb, chairman of the US Senate’s East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, persuaded Myanmar’s ruling military junta to free Yettaw, who had been sentenced to seven years in jail for an unauthorized swim to the Yangon lakeside home of NLD leader Suu Kyi on May 3, staying uninvited until May 5.

The bizarre adventure, supposedly to warn Suu Kyi of a vision Yettaw had had in which he had seen her assassinated, provided the junta with a pretext to charge Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 year under detention, with breaking the terms of her house detention.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner herself was sentenced to three years in jail over Yettaw’s visit, later commuted to 18 months under house detention in her family compound, the same one Yettaw visited.

Webb, known to be close to US President Barack Obama, is an advocate of US ‘re-engagement’ with Asia and has called for a reassessment of US policy toward Myanmar.

The United States has imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar since 1988 and forbade American companies from doing business with the pariah state as of 1991.
http://www.monsters andcritics. com/news/ asiapacific/ news/article_ 1497977.php/ US-congressional -delegation- in-Myanmar- for-foreign- policy-review
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Civil war feared in Myanmar
Last Updated : 2009-08-28 8:32 AM
Agence France Presse

BANGKOK: Fighting between Myanmar’s junta and ethnic groups Friday raised fears of full-scale civil war and forced more refugees from the northeast across the Chinese border, media and analysts said.
A battle in Shan state between the Kogang rebel group and the government’s army began Thursday, breaking a 20-year ceasefire, according to the US Campaign for Burma (USCB), which uses Myanmar’s former name.
More than 10,000 refugees have crossed into the Chinese border town of Nansan in southwestern Yunnan province since August 8 and at least one Myanmar policeman was reportedly killed during the fight, the campaign group said.
“People say they have been hearing gunshots and explosions,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News.
He said another ethnic group, the United Wa State Army, had now reportedly joined the Kokang forces’ fight against the junta and he warned that other groups currently under ceasefire agreements could join in.
“If the Burmese army is returning to a reconciliatory stance it might get better but if not it might be blown into a full-scale civil war,” Khuensai Jaiyen said.
He added that the government was trying to create stability ahead of elections scheduled in 2010 but warned “it will be the opposite”.
David Mathieson, a Myanmar analyst at Human Rights Watch, agreed full-scale civil war was “a very real fear”.
“This could potentially be the flash point that draws in several other groups to the resumption of open conflict,” he said.
Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, has signed ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups.
Chinese state media reported Friday, citing local officials, that Myanmar nationals were still crossing the border into Yunnan province, without giving a specific figure.
“It’s difficult to get a real-time update of that number,” Yu Chunyan, a spokesman for the provincial government, was quoted as saying in the English-language Global Times.
The newspaper reported that China had increased the number of armed police along the common border.
Refugees have been settled in a temporary camp, and Chinese officials were providing food and medical care, the state Xinhua news agency reported, citing unnamed provincial government sources.
http://www.thehimal ayantimes. com/fullNews. php?headline= Civil+war+ feared+in+ Myanmar&id=Mjk1MTc =
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Burmese Ceasefire Breaks Down
By SAW YAN NAING         Friday, August 28, 2009

The ceasefire in northeastern Shan State between the Burmese military junta and several ethnic armies, including the Kokang and the Wa, was broken on Thursday when a combined force of ethnic insurgents exchanged gunfire during at least three skirmishes in and around Laogai, the Kokang capital, which is located on the Salween River bordering China.

Refugees from the Kokang region in Burma’s Shan State sit at a temporary housing area at Nansan town in Zhenkang County in Yunnan province, China. (Photo: Reuters)
Among the armed ethnic groups that have broken the ceasefire are the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), which is the major Kokang militia in Burma, and an ethnic alliance including the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), which is commonly known as the Mong La group.

On Thursday, units from the ethnic alliance attacked the Burmese troops that had occupied Laogai since Monday night, when they were able to seize the town from the MNDAA without firing a single bullet.

During an exchange of mortar fire on Thursday between Burmese troops and the ethnic insurgents, one civilian was reportedly killed and three were injured. There were no reports of military casualties.

During an ambush on Thursday morning in Yanlongai, a town near Laogai, a Burmese police officer was reportedly killed and one was injured, according to sources in the area. Another 42 Burmese policemen were taken prisoner by the ethnic alliance, said the sources.

Soldiers from the Kokang MNDAA reportedly seized 56 automatic rifles, mostly M-16s, from the Burmese police, according to Aung Kyaw Zaw, an analyst on the Sino-Burmese border.

“The fighting will escalate,” he said.

Sources said that further skirmishes broke out on Friday morning in Laogai. No further details were available.

There were no reports from Burmese government sources or the national media regarding the fighting.

The Chinese armed forces have reportedly reinforced their 700-man strong presence at the border as they monitor the conflict.

According to a report by Health Unlimited, a humanitarian NGO working in the region, thousands of civilians fled from Burma to the Chinese side of the border on Thursday. The number could not be independently confirmed.

Two Kokang soldiers guard a checkpoint near the Chinese border. (Photo: Tom Kramer/TNI)
In recent weeks, as tensions heightened between the Burmese junta and the ethnic ceasefire groups, about 10,000 civilians fled over the Chinese border.

Health Unlimited said that the mostly Kokang villagers are currently taking refuge in the Chinese border towns of Nansan in Zheng Kang County, and Qingshuihe in Gengma County, where Chinese authorities have supplied them with shelter, blankets and food rations.

A Chinese official in Kunming who asked to remain anonymous said that officials in Beijing were keeping an eye on the situation via their offices in Yunnan Province.

“We want stability along our border,” he told The Irrawaddy on Friday. Since the fighting broke out, there has been no let up, he added.

He added that Chinese officials are not pleased with the Burmese army’s “hostile attitude” toward the minority peoples who are ethnically close to the Han Chinese. In the past, the ethnic groups at the Sino-Burmese border enjoyed military and political support from China.

Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch David Scott Mathieson said that the regime’s heavy-handed policy could only exacerbate the tension.

“Instead of negotiating with these ceasefire groups, they [the Burmese army] are just trying to force them to do what the regime wants. And my concern is that this will have a very bad impact on civilians in the area. If there is more fighting, then civilians will suffer as a result,” he said.

The MNDAA, the NDAA and the UWSA are among 17 armed ethnic groups that have reportedly signed ceasefire agreements with the Burmese junta over the past 20 years. In recent months, the junta has tried to persuade the ethnic ceasefire groups to join forces with the Burmese army and transform their battalions into border guard units.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy. org

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Report: Two-decade cease-fire in Myanmar is violated
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Friday, August 28th 2009, 4:00 AM
Related News
BANGKOK – Fighting reportedly broke out Thursday between an ethnic militia and government security forces in northeastern Myanmar, breaching a two-decade cease-fire.

Several minorities living in military-ruled Myanmar’s border areas have continued their long struggles for autonomy despite cease-fires with the military regime that seized power in 1988.

Fighters for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army – representing the Kokang minority – on Thursday attacked a police post along the border with China near the town of Laogai, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma.

The Washington-based lobbying group said several police officers were killed and the rebels temporarily occupied the post.

The Kachin News Group, an online news agency that covers the Kachin minority in northern Myanmar, also reported the attack as well as several other clashes.

Reports of the fighting could not be independently confirmed.

Tensions between the Kokang and the government have risen recently after the ethnic group defied an order to allow its guerrillas to be incorporated into a border guard force under army command.

The junta plans an election next year, the first since 1990’s abortive polls, the result of which were ignored by the military when the National League for Democracy party won by a landslide. The military has been anxious to assure stability ahead of the vote.

On Wednesday, Myanmar ethnic groups and Chinese media reported that thousands of people fled into China this month after tensions flared between the Kokang and government.

Some 10,000 left the Kokang area in Myanmar’s northeastern Shan state between Aug. 7 and Aug. 12 after a military confrontation, The Chongqing Evening Post reported.

The trigger for the confrontation was an Aug. 8 raid on the home of Kokang leader Peng Jiashen – also known as Phon Kyar Shin – ostensibly to look for illegal drugs.

Peng’s troops in the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army began mobilizing, but were forced out of Laogai on Tuesday by government soldiers and members of a breakaway Kokang faction.

According to the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Peng issued a statement Thursday calling for talks with the government and for newly deployed troops to withdraw from the area.
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Burma fighting raises civil war fears: analysts

Writer: AFP
Published: 28/08/2009 at 03:01 PM

Fighting between Burma’s junta and ethnic groups Friday raised fears of full-scale civil war and forced more refugees from the northeast across the Chinese border, media and analysts said.

Burma soldiers parade during Armed Forces Day in Naypyidaw, the administrative capital of the secretive and hardline south east Asian state. Fighting between the country’s junta forces and ethnic groups has raised fears of a full-scale civil war and forced more refugees from the northeast across the border into China, media and analysts said.

A battle in Shan state between the Kogang rebel group and the government’s army began Thursday, breaking a 20-year ceasefire, according to the US Campaign for Burma (USCB), which uses Burma’s former name.

More than 10,000 refugees have crossed into the Chinese border town of Nansan in southwestern Yunnan province since August 8 and at least one Burma policeman was reportedly killed during the fight, the campaign group said.

“People say they have been hearing gunshots and explosions,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News.

He said another ethnic group, the United Wa State Army, had now reportedly joined the Kokang forces’ fight against the junta and he warned that other groups currently under ceasefire agreements could join in.

“If the Burmese army is returning to a reconciliatory stance it might get better but if not it might be blown into a full-scale civil war,” Khuensai Jaiyen said.

He added that the government was trying to create stability ahead of elections scheduled in 2010 but warned “it will be the opposite”.

David Mathieson, a Burma analyst at Human Rights Watch, agreed full-scale civil war was “a very real fear”.

“This could potentially be the flash point that draws in several other groups to the resumption of open conflict,” he said.

Burma, under military rule since 1962, has signed ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups.

Chinese state media reported Friday, citing local officials, that Burma nationals were still crossing the border into Yunnan province, without giving a specific figure.

“It’s difficult to get a real-time update of that number,” Yu Chunyan, a spokesman for the provincial government, was quoted as saying in the English-language Global Times.

The newspaper reported that China had increased the number of armed police along the common border.

Refugees have been settled in a temporary camp, and Chinese officials were providing food and medical care, the state Xinhua news agency reported, citing unnamed provincial government sources.
http://www.bangkokp ost.com/news/ asia/152912/ burma-fighting- raises-civil- war-fears- analysts
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Myanmar PM meets Chinese vice minister of commerce
www.chinaview. cn 2009-08-28 17:27:55

YANGON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) — Myanmar Prime Minister General Thein Sein met with visiting Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Chen Jian in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw Friday, according to diplomatic sources.

Chen, during his visit in Myanmar, also had a meeting with First Secretary of the Myanmar State Peace and Development Council General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo and Myanmar Minister of National Planning and Economic Development U Soe Tha on Thursday on matters relating to bilateral economic cooperation.

Following the discussions, the two countries signed two memorandums of understanding, one on building schools in rural areas with the aid of the Chinese government, and the other on the implementation of producing small rice mills in the rural areas.

The Chinese vice minister arrived in Nay Pyi Taw Wednesday on a regular consultation on economic affairs between the two countries.
Editor: Deng Shasha   http://news. xinhuanet. com/english/ 2009-08/28/ content_11959883 .htm
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Friday August 28, 2009
China urges Myanmar to maintain stability

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry on Friday called on Myanmar to “properly handle domestic problems and maintain stability in the China-Myanmar border region”.

“We also urge Myanmar to protect the security and legal rights of Chinese citizens in Myanmar,” said the statement by spokeswoman Jiang Yu, on the ministry’s website (www.fmprc.gov. cn )
Refugees from Kokang in Myanmar’s Shan State arrive with their luggage at Nansan town in Zhenkang County in Yunnan province August 25, 2009. Tension between Myanmar government troops and an armed ethnic group has sparked an exodus of into China from northeastern Myanmar. (REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA POLITICS))

Fresh fighting has erupted between Myanmar forces and an armed ethnic group in the remote northeast, forcing 10,000 people to flee across the border into China, activists and state media have said.

Thousands have fled this month from Kokang in Myanmar’s Shan State after clashes there, which, according to a U.S.-based rights group, followed the deployment of troops in the area, home to a large number of ethnic Chinese.

Copyright © 2008 Reuters  http://thestar. com.my/news/ story.asp? file=/2009/ 8/28/worldupdate s/2009-08- 28T162443Z_ 01_NOOTR_ RTRMDNC_0_ -420549-1&sec=Worldupdates
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Q+A-China’s complex relationship with Myanmar
Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:30am EDT
By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING, Aug 28 (Reuters) – Fighting between Myanmar forces and an armed ethnic group in the remote northeast has forced 10,000 people to flee across the border to China and may raise tensions between the country’s ruling junta and Beijing. [ID:nPEK291010]

China is one of Myanmar’s few diplomatic backers, often coming to the rescue when it is subjected to pressure by Western governments over issues such as the imprisonment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Here are some questions and answers on China’s complex relationship with its troublesome southern neighbour.

WHY IS CHINA UNWILLING TO CRITICISE MYANMAR?

China has a longstanding policy of non-interference in other countries’ affairs, especially over human rights issues, in part because it does not want the United States and Europe criticising Beijing’s own record. [ID:nBKK197002]

Beyond that, China’s overriding concern is a stable Myanmar. Drugs and HIV/AIDS pour across the border into the southwestern province of Yunnan and China is desperate to control that flow. Any action that might place unbearable pressure on the generals and force a government collapse could have dire consequences for China. Ethnic minorities in Myanmar, which have in some cases waged long-running insurgencies, could then set up de facto states along the Chinese border and their primary income would likely come from drugs.

China also argues that Myanmar is no threat to international peace and warrants no U.N. Security Council involvement, unlike North Korea and its nuclear programme.

WHAT ABOUT CHINA’S ENERGY AND ECONOMIC TIES WITH MYANMAR?

Energy-hungry China is keen to import gas from Myanmar. A pipeline with annual capacity of 12 billion cubic metres, is expected from 2012 to ship gas to Kunming, capital of Yunnan province. [ID:nPEK42962]

China will also start building an oil pipeline next month through Myanmar to enable it to facilitate crude imports from the Middle East and Africa.

The link would allow Chinese oil tankers to avoid a 1,200 km (750-mile) detour through the congested and strategically vulnerable Malacca Strait.

Overall, China has invested more than $1 billion in Myanmar, primarily in the mining sector, and is the country’s fourth largest foreign investor, state media say. Bilateral trade grew more than one-quarter last year to around $2.63 billion.

WHAT ARE CHINA’S BROADER STRATEGIC GOALS?

China has long worried about hostile neighbours, including India, or Japan and South Korea with their U.S. military bases. Having a friendly government in Myanmar is therefore important.

Myanmar gives China important access to the Indian Ocean, not only for exports from landlocked southwestern Chinese provinces, but also potentially for military bases or listening posts. There are no guarantees a democratically- elected civilian government would be as keen for close ties with a China which had previously supported the junta.

And China, with its own history of suppressing home-grown demands for democracy, is hardly going to push Myanmar to grant the kinds of freedoms it regularly denies its own citizens.

The sanctions already imposed on Myanmar by the United States and European Union have in any case had little effect. The government also defied expectations it would implode during violent pro-democracy protests two years ago.

ARE THERE SIGNS CHINA’S PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN?

Very small ones. At a May meeting in Hanoi, Asian and European foreign ministers urged Myanmar to free detainees and lift political restrictions, in a statement unexpected signed by China. [ID:nSP502104]

In 2007, China’s Foreign Ministry published an unflattering account of Myanmar’s new jungle capital Naypyidaw, expressing surprise that this poor country would consider such an expensive move and not even tell supposed friend Beijing first. (Editing by Ron Popeski and Alex Richardson)
http://www.reuters. com/article/ homepageCrisis/ idUSSP432912. _CH_.2400? rpc=401 &
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China urges Myanmar to end conflict in border area
The Associated Press
Posted: 08/28/2009 03:39:19 AM PDT
Updated: 08/28/2009 04:00:17 AM PDT

BEIJING—A state news agency says Beijing is urging Myanmar to end fighting with an ethnic militia in a border area that has sent refugees fleeing into China.

The official Xinhua News Agency says China hopes Myanmar can “properly deal with its domestic issue to safeguard the regional stability of its bordering area with China,” in a Friday report citing Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

The statement is rare for China, which usually takes care not to appear to be entangling itself in the affairs of its southern neighbor.

Authorities in the southeastern Chinese province of Yunnan say some 10,000 people have already across the border from Myanmar in recent days.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BEIJING (AP)—About 10,000 people have fled northern Myanmar for China to escape fighting between the military and ethnic minority militias, the government in China’s Yunnan province said Friday.

On Thursday, militants who have long fought for autonomy for Myanmar’s Kokang minority, attacked a police post along the border with China near the town of Laogai, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma. The Washington-based lobbying group said several police officers were killed.

Myanmar’s military rulers and the state-controlled press made no comment on the situation at the border.

People were continuing to cross over from Kokang in Myanmar late Friday,
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and Chinese authorities were housing them at seven separate locations along the border, the Yunnan provincial government said in a brief statement faxed to media. It said 10,000 people had fled Myanmar into Yunnan.

Chinese authorities were providing medical services and taking measures to prevent disease, the statement said.

An aid worker and a factory manager in the Chinese town of Nansan said they could hear guns and artillery being fired over the border, some 150 feet (50 meters) away, throughout the day.

Myanmar’s central government has rarely exerted control in Kokang—a mostly ethnic Chinese region in the northern Shan state—and essentially ceded control to a local militia after signing a cease-fire with them two decades ago. The region is one of several areas along Myanmar’s borders where minority militias are seeking autonomy from the central government.

But tensions between the government and the Kokang people have been rising in recent months, as the junta tries to consolidate its control of the country and ensure stability ahead of national elections next year—the first since the opposition National League for Democracy won in a landslide in 1990, a result the military ignored.

The crisis has turned a spotlight on China’s friendly ties with Myanmar’s authoritarian rulers. Beijing has consistently offered the military regime diplomatic support based on its avowed policy of nonintervention while China’s border trade and oil and gas deals have thrown an economic lifeline to the generals.

As the refugees poured in from Myanmar, Chinese authorities in Nansan housed them in unfinished buildings, some still with no windows, said the local factory manager, who would only give his surname, Li.

A worker with an international medical charity, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the local government, said local authorities were caring for about 4,000 refugees. Several thousand more were staying in hotels or with friends and family on the Chinese side, he said, saying more detailed information was being gathered.

Tensions in Myanmar’s Kokang region rose earlier this month after Kokang militia leaders refused to allow their guerrillas to be incorporated into a border guard force under Myanmar army command.

After government soldiers raided the home of militia leader Peng Jiashen on Aug. 8, Peng’s forces began mobilizing. Peng’s troops were forced out of Laogai on Tuesday by government soldiers and members of a breakaway Kokang faction seeking to overthrow Peng.

Kokang lies 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) southwest of Beijing and is surrounded by lush mountains in a region notorious for the production and use of heroin and methamphetamines, cross-border smuggling, gambling and prostitution.

The region’s links to China date back to the collapse of the Ming dynasty 350 years ago, when loyalists fled across the mountains into present-day Myanmar to escape Manchu invaders.

In recent years, the area has attracted a flood of businessmen from China who have opened hotels, restaurants and shops selling motorcycles, electronics and other imports that are either pricey or unavailable in other parts of the country.

Wary of the consequences of renewed conflict, many of those investors fled back across the border this month, according to Chinese reports. http://www.mercuryn ews.com/nationwo rld/ci_13222177? nclick_check= 1
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Myanmar Takes Rebel-Held Town Near China Oil Projects (Update2)
By Daniel Ten Kate

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) — Myanmar’s army seized control of a rebel-held town on its border with China, raising concern a 20- year cease-fire could collapse, threatening planned oil and gas projects in the region.

Ethnic Kokang rebels attacked Myanmar police patrolling a border gate in northeastern Shan state, killing at least one, the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma said in a statement late yesterday. About 10,000 people had crossed into neighboring Yunnan Province in China by early today to escape what was described as a domestic war by state-controlled Xinhua News Agency, which cited the provincial government.

“The junta should withdraw its additional troops sent to Kokang,” Peng Jiasheng, who heads the local rebel army, said in a statement released through U.S. Campaign for Burma. He called a new committee set up by the regime to administer the area “illegal and illegitimate.”

The Kokang are one of the ethnic groups on Myanmar’s borders that agreed to join the state in 1947 in return for autonomy.

Myanmar has Asia’s seventh-largest natural gas reserves, or 17.5 trillion cubic feet, according to BP Plc estimates, which China is keen to tap to help fuel economic growth. South Korea’s Daewoo International Corp. said this week it would invest 2.1 trillion won ($1.68 billion) in a Myanmar gas project to supply China National Petroleum Corp., that country’s largest oil company.

Myanmar has increased its foreign currency holdings fourfold since 2004 to $3.6 billion, mostly on oil and gas sales to China and Thailand. Talks continue on how construction costs for an 825-kilometer (513-mile) overland gas pipeline may be split, Daewoo International said.

Border Guards

Myanmar’s military rulers have been attempting to persuade armed ethnic groups to become border guards partially under their control. The Kokang and other minorities in the so-called cease-fire groups have resisted the junta’s request to lay down their weapons and form political parties.

“The Burmese are surrounding the cease-fire groups so they cannot move unless they fight their way out or surrender,” said Khuensai Jaiyen, director of the exiled Shan Herald Agency for News based in northern Thailand, referring to the country by its former name. “The groups fear that China will close the border and then they will have to fight to the death.”

China has asked the cease-fire groups not to start shooting at Myanmar’s army because it “doesn’t want a civil war right at its borders,” Jaiyen said. “That’s bad for business.” Chinese security forces have clashed with ethnic minorities in Tibet and western Xinjiang in recent years.

Drug Trade

Four allied cease-fire groups said in an Aug. 21 statement released by the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma that the junta was threatening them under the guise of a campaign to eradicate illicit drugs. The groups, who have pledged to help each other in the case of war, encouraged peaceful dialogue with the government and pledged to “never secede and announce independence,” the statement said.

“In anticipation of a resurgence of war, tens of thousands of ethnic minorities have fled to the border,” Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said in the statement.

Myanmar’s constitution, passed by a referendum last year, calls for a unitary state and says “all the armed forces in the Union shall be under the command of the Defense Services,” the International Crisis Group said in an Aug. 20 report.

Cease-fire groups are reluctant to become border guards because that “would greatly reduce their autonomy and would represent a major concession in return for which they are being offered no political quid pro quo,” the Crisis Group said in the report. Myanmar officially recognizes 135 ethnic groups.

Border clashes would also jeopardize national elections planned for next year that Myanmar’s government hopes will enhance its international legitimacy. Earlier this month, a court sentenced opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years with hard labor for violating her detention order. The sentence was immediately commuted to 18 months of house arrest.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg. net
Last Updated: August 28, 2009 05:26 EDT  http://www.bloomber g.com/apps/ news?pid= 20601072&sid=arZI9gaFeOQM
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Aug 28, 2009
Fighting ups civil war fears

BANGKOK – FIGHTING between Myanmar’s junta and ethnic groups on Friday raised fears of full-scale civil war and forced more refugees from the northeast across the Chinese border, media and analysts said.

A battle in Shan state between the Kogang rebel group and the government’s army began Thursday, breaking a 20-year ceasefire, according to the US Campaign for Burma (USCB), which uses Myanmar’s former name.

More than 10,000 refugees have crossed into the Chinese border town of Nansan in southwestern Yunnan province since August 8 and at least one Myanmar policeman was reportedly killed during the fight, the campaign group said.

‘People say they have been hearing gunshots and explosions,’ said Khuensai Jaiyen, editor of the Shan Herald Agency for News. He said another ethnic group, the United Wa State Army, had now reportedly joined the Kokang forces’ fight against the junta and he warned that other groups currently under ceasefire agreements could join in.

‘If the Burmese army is returning to a reconciliatory stance it might get better but if not it might be blown into a full-scale civil war,’ Khuensai Jaiyen said.

He added that the government was trying to create stability ahead of elections scheduled in 2010 but warned ‘it will be the opposite’.

David Mathieson, a Myanmar analyst at Human Rights Watch, agreed full-scale civil war was ‘a very real fear’. ‘This could potentially be the flash point that draws in several other groups to the resumption of open conflict,’ he said.

Myanmar, under military rule since 1962, has signed ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed groups. Chinese state media reported on Friday, citing local officials, that Myanmar nationals were still crossing the border into Yunnan province, without giving a specific figure.

‘It’s difficult to get a real-time update of that number,’ Yu Chunyan, a spokesman for the provincial government, was quoted as saying in the English-language Global Times.

The newspaper reported that China had increased the number of armed police along the common border. Refugees have been settled in a temporary camp, and Chinese officials were providing food and medical care, the state Xinhua news agency reported, citing unnamed provincial government sources. — AFP  http://www.straitst imes.com/ Breaking+ News/SE+Asia/ Story/STIStory_ 422497.html
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Lawyers to appeal Suu Kyi sentence

Aug 28, 2009 (DVB)–Lawyers for Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are set to appeal her sentencing next week, following complaints that new conditions of her house arrest are stricter than before.

Suu Kyi met with her lawyers yesterday at her Rangoon compound where she has been sentenced to 18 months under house arrest.

“We mainly discussed an appeal to reconsider her sentence passed by the Insein district court,” said lawyer Nyan Win.

“We brought along the draft version of the appeal we wrote [which] is to be amended in the next few days.”

A finalised version of the appeal will be submitted next week. Nyan Win said lawyers also talked with Suu Kyi regarding the new house arrest conditions set by the government.

“In her previous house detention, she was allowed to meet with family members and also granted a regular medical check-up, but she doesn’t get these under the new conditions,” said Nyan Win, adding that a lot of the wording in the new conditions is unclear.

Suu Kyi was sentenced on 11 August to an 18-month commuted sentence under house arrest, following the visit in May of US citizen John Yettaw to her compound.

Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years with hard labour, was released last week followig a visit to Burma by US senator Jim Webb.

Webb, who also met with Suu Kyi, stirred controversy following the visit with claims that Suu Kyi had hinted at a change in her pro-sanctions stance. This provided the basis for a commentary published in the New York Times yesterday.

“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she did not see his remarks as reflecting the Obama administration’ s policy,” said Nyan Win.

Nyan Win said the National League Democracy (NLD) party was informed by the US embassy in Rangoon that three humanitarian experts from the US senate will be meeting with the party today.

It is unclear however what will be discussed in the meeting.

Reporting by Htet Aung Kyaw  http://english. dvb.no/news. php?id=2818
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New US policy is important for Burma’s future
By Khin Maung Win
Oslo, Published on August 28, 2009

The visit by US Senator Jim Webb to Burma, in which he won the release of John William Yettaw, who was sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment with hard labour for swimming across Inya lake to the home of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, draws scepticism from some stakeholders in Burmese politics.

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Since the administration of President Obama stated that its Burma policy is under review, those in the camp who supported the previous US sanctions policy are concerned about the direction of the prospective new policy.

The major concern is that the policy shift would change the equation between the regime and its opponents by favouring Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and would legitimise the regime and its controversial 2010 election. As of now the election is a critical battlefield on which the fight between the SPDC and the opposition groups will be played out.

It is a fact that both engagement policies advocated by Asean, Burma’s neighbours and other Asian nations, and the sanctions and isolation policy held by the US and EU have equally failed to bring any positive change in Burma. Looking for an alternative becomes a natural reality.

Previous attempts by the US to use its power via the UN Security Council have never been realised due to vetoes from China and Russia. These two countries also intervened when the US, along with the UK and France, tried to practise “Responsibility to Protect” to save the victims of Cyclone Nargis that hit Burma in May 2008, leaving 135,000 dead and over two million homeless while the Burmese regime denied immediate humanitarian aid from outside. The US must find an alternative policy so that it can exercise its power to help 55 million Burmese people.

The US is the power the SPDC despises most, but at the same time, will listen to most if it has to. Some suggest that Senator Webb’s success in meeting with Senior General Than Shwe and Aung San Suu Kyi is a result of mounting international pressure, which the regime wants to defuse following Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentencing on August 11.

While the US needs to send a former president, Bill Clinton, to North Korea to secure the freedom of two Americans and to meet reclusive leader Kim Jong-il, it was politically cheaper for it to send only a senator to secure the freedom of Yettaw and meet Burma’s reclusive leader. It indicates that the Burmese regime will listen to the US when it has to, even though unwillingly.

But the US cannot unilaterally exercise its power. Bringing more nations on board, along with a new policy, whilst remaining in the driving seat, would make a difference.

Some suggest the Obama administration is sending a mixed message to the regime, with the US president’s recent renewal of Burma sanctions contradicting calls from some senior US officials for “affirmative engagement”. Should we not see the renewal as a signal from the US that sanctions remain a possible punishment, whereas the doorway has been opened for engagement? Should it be understood as a “carrot and stick” policy which offers engagement in the first place and punishment later? This is not a new approach in dealing with Burma. Australia, for example, in the early 1990s advocated a similar concept using the name of “Benchmark Policy”.

The division among the international players has allowed the regime’s survival over the last two decades. Once the US develops a new policy, it must be able to bring more nations on board from both camps – those advocating engagement and those advocating sanctions and isolation.

The carrot and stick approach, offering engagement and sanctions, with proper use of both in a balanced manner, could be a bridge to bring both camps closer. It means that the new US policy must be multilateral, not unilateral.

Some Asian countries, including Asean members, India and China, may have prioritised their own interests when engaging with the regime. They are also major trading partners of the regime, and some supply weapons. A few may even wish that Burma never becomes a democracy. Some democracies, namely India and Japan, compromise universally- accepted values that are in practise in their countries, just for national interest – by giving in too much to the SPDC. This shows that countries in the engagement camp have less interest in changing Burma’s status quo. Unlike these nations, the US is freer from any conflict of interest when it comes to Burma policy, whether using sanctions or engagement. It mainly sticks to the idea of sympathy for 55 million Burmese suffering under repressive military rulers for half a century.

Its democratic structure at home is unlikely to allow the US to compromise its values of human rights, freedom, justice, multi-party democracy and market economy when it comes to Burma policy. Planting such universally- accepted values in Burma can only be good.

Sympathy for the Burmese people, within the White House, State Department and both houses of Congress, as well as strong Burma advocacy groups in the country, could reduce the risk of a new US policy becoming another failed engagement.

The regime is not afraid to insult any international organisation, including Asean, the EU and UN. A recent example of how the regime blatantly fouled the international community was during UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s trip to Burma in early July. Most people assumed that pre-arrangements for his visit included securing the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi, or at least meeting with her. The regime easily snubbed the secretary-general by denying him a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi.

But the regime knows that it is difficult for it to insult the US the same way. Of course, it is up to the US to determine whether it will allow itself to be insulted.

Khin Maung Win is deputy executive director of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Burmese radio and TV station based in Oslo. The views expressed in the article are his own.
http://www.nationmu ltimedia. com/2009/ 08/28/opinion/ opinion_30110853 .php
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Burmese Exile Government Urges Washington to Stay Firm on Sanctions
By Daniel Schearf
Bangkok
27 August 2009

A spokesman for the Burmese government in exile has urged Washington not to hastily ease sanctions against Burma’s military government. The exile government and rights groups support U.S. engagement with Burma, but they also want pressure for change.

A spokesman for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, Zin Linn, says U.S. sanctions should stay in place until opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released and Burma’s rulers agree to talks with the opposition.

“All the sanctions made by the U.S. and EU will hurt directly to the military junta, the generals, and only their cronies,” he said. “Not hurt to the ordinary peoples, because all the economic business, all the big industries are in the hands of the generals and their relatives. No other, ordinary people have a chance, or they have no rights to participate in the economic sectors.”

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.,speaks during a news conference in Hanoi, Vietnam, 19 Aug 2009
Senator Jim Webb
Zin Linn was responding to U.S. Senator Jim Webb’s call for reducing sanctions and further engaging Burma’s rulers.

In an opinion article published this week in the New York Times newspaper, Webb said the sanctions had only entrenched the Burmese generals and isolated the country.

Benjamin Zawacki, a Burma researcher for Amnesty International, says isolating a military government that is all too willing to isolate itself is counter-productive. He says regional engagement is the only way that changes are going to come.

“Further engagement and further pressure are not mutually exclusive policies or tactics,” said Zawacki. “And, so it needs more of both of those things.”

Zin Linn says he agrees the sanctions have not brought change. But he says Washington must continue to pressure Burma’s rulers to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other key opposition figures if they want to see democracy in the country.

Webb says sanctions also allow China, which does not support the measures, to dramatically increase its economic and political influence with Burma, which he called a “dangerous strategic imbalance.”

Senator Webb earlier this month became the most senior U.S. politician to visit Burma in a decade.

He met with Burma’s reclusive military leader Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He also secured the release of American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years hard labor for visiting Aung San Suu Kyi without official permission.

The military government extended her house arrest by 18 months for allowing the uninvited guest to stay two days.

The military has held Aung San Suu Kyi for 14 of the past 20 years, drawing condemnation by much of the international community, including the United States and the United Nations.

The National League for Democracy, which Aung San Suu Kyi leads, won Burma’s last election, in 1990, but was never allowed to take office. Many of those elected were forced to flee the country and they have formed the government in exile.
http://www.voanews. com/english/ 2009-08-27- voa14.cfm