Myanmar refugees go into China as fighting commences in Myanmar

[mr friendly guy]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china ... SKBN13H07I

WORLD NEWS | Tue Nov 22, 2016 | 3:43am EST
China says 3,000 flee Myanmar after fighting along border

China is giving shelter to more than 3,000 people who have fled Myanmar after fighting between the government and rebels, and stray shells have fallen inside China causing minor damage but no deaths, the government and state media said on Tuesday.

Four ethnic armed groups have attacked security forces in the north of Myanmar, dealing a major blow to leader Aung San Suu Kyi's top goal of reaching peace with ethnic minorities.

China, which has been alarmed by previous fighting along the porous border, has put its armed forces on high alert and called for all sides to exercise restraint.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said injured people among the 3,000 Myanmar citizens have been taken to hospital. The refugees are in the southwestern province of Yunnan, which shares a long border with Myanmar.

"We strongly hope that both sides involved in the clash exercise restraint," Geng told a daily briefing.

He urged both sides to immediately halt military action, avoid escalating the situation and take effective steps so that the border region returns to peace as soon as possible.

"China is willing to keep playing a constructive role in Myanmar's internal peace process, in according with Myanmar's wishes," he added.

China hopes those who have fled can return to Myanmar as soon as the fighting ends, Geng said.

Stray shells have fallen in Wanding, an important border crossing, causing some minor damage, state television said.

The Global Times newspaper also said a Chinese government building in Wanding had been lightly damaged.

Only one Chinese resident had been injured, and fighting on the Myanmar side had subsided, Geng added.

The sudden escalation of fighting comes as the Myanmar government grapples with a conflict in northwestern Rakhine that has sent hundreds of Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, posing a new challenge to Nobel peace prize winner Suu Kyi, who swept to power last year on promises of national reconciliation.

Previous fighting along the border pushed thousands of people into China. China was infuriated last year when five Chinese people were killed after fighting spilled into its territory.

I wonder if these refugees will end up staying in China.

[Esquire]

Well, they do have both whole literal spare cities and a looming demographics crisis...

[K. A. Pital]

Does the pro-Chinese rebel faction fight or is it out of the fighting? Want to know.

[Raj Ahten]

Some more of the same that has been going on since the Japanese invasion in ww2 or even before. Such ethnic/religious based battles are one reason to question the liberal consensus that diversity is automatically good and leads to greater national strength. In lots of places it can also be a source of tension, or at least be a force multiplier for conflicts.

[mr friendly guy]

Does the pro-Chinese rebel faction fight or is it out of the fighting? Want to know.

According to an article posted on another message board

A press release on Sunday afternoon from the State Counsellor’s Office of Myanmar said the over 600-strong joint groups included the Kachin Independence Army, Ta-ang National Liberation Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The armed groups cut off the government troops' support line and occupied several important strongholds, and more intensive fighting is yet to come, CCTV said.

People on that other board have a habit of copying the article with pictures but no link, however it appears to be from a news site specialising in news from Myanmar.
http://www.mizzima.com/news-domestic/do ... ar-battles

[Simon_Jester]

Some more of the same that has been going on since the Japanese invasion in ww2 or even before. Such ethnic/religious based battles are one reason to question the liberal consensus that diversity is automatically good and leads to greater national strength. In lots of places it can also be a source of tension, or at least be a force multiplier for conflicts.

Diversity works when the diverse groups are not actively fighting zero-sum games over territory or control over local culture.

Diversity becomes a handicap when such zero-sum games are in play. And you get zero-sum games like that, usually, as a result of:
1) One powerful group trying to oppress another and the threatened group pushing back, OR
2) One group trying to raid and attack and otherwise grow at the direct expense of another.

So if you have a civil society where nonviolence is the norm for people's dealings with one another, diversity is a strength. If your society is already divided up into mutually suspicious armed camps, diversity is a handicap. Because it means your nation has four armed camps suspiciously eyeing one another and periodically hurting each other, instead of one suspicious armed camp looking outwards and cooperating inwardly.

[mr friendly guy]

Just want to elaborate on Simon's post, there are more than 4 groups in Myanmar, its just 4 groups have been identified to be involved in the fighting including the government. According to wiki there are 135 ethnic groups in Myanmar with 8 broad groupings.

The Myanmar government hasn't had a history under military rule of uniting all the groups. They don't have a national identity they can sell unlike the US. I am not sure about the newer democratic government either. Just look at the treatment of Rohingyas even with Nobel Laureatte Aung Sung Syu Kyi.

[mr friendly guy]

Bit more info

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomac ... -civil-war

The three armed ethnic groups behind the surprise attacks in the border area of northern Myanmar’s Shan State since early Sunday are the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Kokang’s Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), according to Xinhua.
The three groups did not sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement between the Myanmese government and eight ethnic groups last year. The accord was one of the key political outcomes of Myanmar’s transition period under former president Thein Sein.
The KIA is the military wing of the Kachin Independence Organisation, a political group comprising ethnic Kachins in northern Myanmar. It has clashed regularly with Myanmar’s military since 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire between the two broke down. The Kachins are a coalition of at least six tribes whose homeland encircles territory in Yunnan in China and Northeast India, in addition to Kachin State in Myanmar.
The TNLA is the armed wing of the Palaung State Liberation Front and promotes self-determination for the Ta’ang people, a Mon-Khmer ethnic minority living in Shan State, Yunnan and Northern Thailand. The TNLA is well known for its opposition to opium poppy cultivation, which is a major contributor to Myanmar’s economy and concentrated in the Shan and Kachin states.
The MNDAA, also known as the Kokang Army, is led by ethnic-Chinese commander Peng Jiasheng and is an active insurgent group in the Chinese-speaking Kokang region, an area in the northern part of Shan State on the border with Yunnan. The MNDAA emerged from the remnants of the Communist Party of Burma, a powerful Chinese-backed guerrilla force that battled the Myanmese government before splintering in 1989, according to Reuters. The MNDAA was involved in what was called the biggest outbreak of fighting between ethnic groups and government troops in Myanmar in August, 2009 when government troops took over their Kokang region in a conflict that pushed tens of thousands of refugees into China.