Lashio (Myanmar): A Chinese intelligence tip-off about an illegal arms factory led to fighting that caused 30,000 ethnic Kokang refugees to flee across the Myanmar border into southern China, a Myanmar government official claimed Wednesday.
The remarks by Myanmar Deputy Home Affairs Minister Brigadier General Phone Swe seemed designed to defuse China`s annoyance at last month`s influx of thousands of Kokang refugees into Yunnan province.
Phone Swe said China had told Myanmar about the factory during a joint ministerial meeting to combat crime held in July.
"We were informed that an arms-making factory had been located near Yan Lon Kyaing village in the Kokang region," Phone Swe told diplomats and journalists who were invited to visit Kokang on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Upon receiving the information given by the Chinese side, Myanmar armed forces engaged in an operation in this area on August 8 and occupied an illegal factory," he said.
"The Kokang region is now back to normality and fully controlled," Phone Swe said.
The Kokang region is in a remote corner of North Shan State, across the border from Kane Ma district in Yunnan, southern China.
The Myanmar government invited diplomats and 10 local journalists to Kokang to observe the situation for the first time since fighting occurred from August 9 and 30.
Phone Swe told journalists that arrest warrants had been issued for five Kokang militia leaders who initially initially fled to Yunnan, taking more than 800 soldiers with them.
The Army has placed the remaining Kokang fighters under the command of Bai Xuoqian, who favours the Myanmar military regime.
Myanmar`s hinterlands are currently controlled by a dozen militias comprised of former rebel groups who have signed ceasefire agreements with the government in exchange for a measure of autonomy in their traditional territories.
But these militias must be transformed into border guards under Army control prior to a general election planned in 2010.
Myanmar watchers have accused the military of using the illegal arms factory as a pretext for cracking down on the Kokang militia, which had 1,500 soldiers prior to the fighting, after the militia rejected demands that they be transformed into a border guard.
The attack on the Kokang was seen as a warning to other ethnic minority militias in Shan State to toe the government line and lay down their weapons by October.
"We plan to take part in the 2010 election and have agreed to transform our troops into border security guards," Bai Xuoqian said.
Observers said the poll could be delayed if the militias refuse that transformation, and that leads to sustained fighting between them and the military.
Myanmar authorities said 26 soldiers and policemen died and about 50 were wounded in the conflict, compared with eight Kokang militiamen dead.
China was annoyed at the influx of thousands of panicked ethnic-Chinese Kokang, who have lived in North Shan State for centuries, and called on Myanmar to restore security to the area.
Myanmar`s pro-democracy groups had hoped the Kokang conflict would undermine relations between Beijing and the Myanmar military, but Phone Swe indicated that was unlikely since Myanmar claimed Chinese intelligence had sparked the incident.
IANS
