Myanmar Army Routs Ethnic Chinese

[Ordie]

Brilliant:

China sends weapons to Burma so they can kill Chinese.


Myanmar Army Routs Ethnic Chinese Rebels in the North
By THOMAS FULLER
BANGKOK — The Myanmar (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/myanmar/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) military has overwhelmed rebels from an ethnic Chinese minority in the northern reaches of the country, the junta’s second victory over armed opponents in three months.
The routing over the weekend of the forces of the small, Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic group gives Myanmar’s governing generals momentum in their campaign to quell armed opposition before elections and the adoption of a new Constitution next year.
Several well-armed groups, notably the Wa and Kachin, still stand in the way of the junta’s goal of complete control over the country. But a recently announced agreement of solidarity among the rebel groups, which had the potential to slow the central government’s advance against the Kokang, may be fraying.
The Myanmar government’s strategy, analysts say, appears to be to challenge the groups one by one and to try to capitalize on the many factions within each group.
In June, the military defeated ethnic Karen insurgents (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/world/asia/21myanmar.html) along the border with Thailand, aided by a local militia of Karen Buddhists who led an attack on forces that were largely made up of Karen Christians.
To defeat the Kokang, the small ethnic group in the north, the junta allied itself with a defector and chased out troops loyal to the Kokang’s chairman, Peng Jiasheng.
More:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/world/asia/31iht-myanmar.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

[Ordie]

I guess the policy of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries seems to be working well for China. p-)




Thousands of Myanmar refugees stream into China

northern Myanmar abates. It's unclear whether the calm is temporary and how China will react to the influx of people fleeing the violence.




Reporting from New Delhi - An uneasy calm settled over northern Myanmar on Sunday as rebels and refugees continued to cross the border into southern China after an assault by Myanmar's military.

United Nations and overseas Myanmar groups say more than 10,000 ethnic Kokang refugees, including hundreds of militiamen, are now in southern China, presenting a logistical headache for Beijing.

Still unclear, analysts said, is whether this is only a lull in the fighting and how great an effect this human tide will have on relations between China and its ally, Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

In the past, Beijing has downplayed political, social and human rights problems raised by the West, arguing that these were internal Myanmar issues that didn't affect regional stability or China's national interest. This stance may be harder to maintain now that the problem has washed over into Chinese territory.

"India will remain quiet as long as its national interests aren't affected," said Aung Zaw, the editor of the Irrawaddy magazine, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. "But this puts China in a difficult situation."

A number of considerations appear to have fueled Myanmar's decision to launch a campaign against the Kokang militants, analysts said.

"This is a several-****g strategy," said Zarni, a senior fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who uses only one name.

The move may be aimed at boosting domestic support in advance of promised elections in 2010, the first in two decades. The elections are being held under a new constitution widely seen as favorable to the nation's military rulers.

Northern Myanmar is better off financially than many other parts of the impoverished nation because of smuggling, Chinese investment, trade and other factors. So an attack on the Kokang, the weakest of several armed groups in the area, could win points among voters farther south who envy the area for its relative prosperity.

The attack on a group that is ethnically and linguistically Chinese also may be a way to send a signal to Beijing that Myanmar doesn't want to be pushed around.

Although this risks awakening the sleeping giant, Myanmar also knows that China's Communist Party doesn't want trouble before the nation's politically sensitive 60th anniversary of party rule.

Furthermore, China recently staked $1 billion on an oil pipeline project through Myanmar, which will probably make Beijing think twice about applying too much pressure on its neighbor.

With Russia and India either in Myanmar's camp or unlikely to embarrass it publicly, the government also may be sending out feelers to the United States in a further bid to counterbalance China's huge influence. This comes at a time when the Obama administration is reviewing U.S. policy toward Myanmar.

This week, Myanmar's military rulers justified the crackdown against the Kokang forces as a move against drug trafficking -- a cause more likely to win sympathy in Washington -- rather than as an attack on a domestic upstart.

This month, Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia was given rare access to supreme military leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe as well as detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Webb also was able to secure the release of American John Yettaw, with the military government hailing the senator's visit as "a success for both sides as well as the first step to the promotion of relations between the two countries."

Yettaw was jailed on charges related to his visit to Suu Kyi's house, which he reached by swimming across a lake. Analysts say the incident served as a pretext to extend the Nobel Peace Prize winner's house arrest by an additional 18 months -- putting Suu Kyi out of circulation through next year's promised national elections.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military in various forms since a coup in 1962. In the interim, the Southeast Asian nation has held only one election, in 1990. The election produced a landslide win for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which the government refused to acknowledge. Critics have dismissed next year's polls as a ruse designed to legitimize and extend the army's grip on power.

In attacking the Kokang, the government also hoped to send a signal to other armed groups in the area, analysts said, that they should fall in line with its plan to transform them into border guard units and not create trouble.

The government wants various armed groups subdued and on message before the vote and in particular wants to prevent them from unifying politically. Given that the apparent routing of the Kokang took a month, the generals may have given themselves some months before next year's polls -- no date has been announced -- should they need to take on several other groups one by one.

"For a variety of reasons, they can't have bombs exploding while the campaign is underway," Zarni said.
Source:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-myanmar31-2009aug31,0,5045270.story

[acosta]

good post, few people even notice this news.

[OzComrade]

I really hope for a brighter future for the Burmese, but it doesn't look very promising

[Hongjian]

Chinas policy remind me of the 'Holy Alliance' of the 19th century after the French Revolution and of the aftermath of the Wiener Kongreß (vienna congress), where every reactionary and authoritarian monarchy in europe forged an alliance to fight the spread of democratic-, nationalistic- and liberal ideas while following a policy of non-interference (closely to the results of the 'Westfälischen Frieden') and supporting each other in persecutiong and killing oppositionals and dissents.

Alliance of Dictatorships FTW.

[VAMAN]

Brilliant:

China sends weapons to Burma so they can kill Chinese.


The Myanmar (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/myanmar/index.html?inline=nyt-geo) military has overwhelmed rebels from an ethnic Chinese minority in the northern reaches of the country, the junta’s second victory over armed opponents in three months.
The routing over the weekend of the forces of the small, Chinese-speaking Kokang ethnic group gives Myanmar’s governing generals momentum in their campaign to quell armed opposition before elections and the adoption of a new Constitution next year.More:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/world/asia/31iht-myanmar.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print
Somebody tell the reporter that there is no such language called Chinese.

And why they insist that these people be called Chinese? Because there are people across the border in China which speak the same language? But I say this is true with every country, people living in both sides of the border speak the same language.

[Jaegermeister + Red Bull]

The Kokang were basically Ming loyalist that fled south from the incoming Manchus.

Putting aside the ethnic ties, why would the CCP favour having a small armed group not under anyone's jurisdiction, with dubious sources of income and activities right next to its border???

And please, they are an ethnic Chinese group living in Burma for the last 300 years, they hold Burmese passport and if they are challenging the writ of the Burmese state, it is their own call and their own responsibility for the fallout.

Another fail Ordie, next.

[the_13th_redneck]

Chinese would either be Mandarin or a reference to all the languages in China.
But to not make a distinction would be just the same as treating Spanish, French and Italian as the same language.

[d'artagnan]

Chinese would either be Mandarin or a reference to all the languages in China.
But to not make a distinction would be just the same as treating Spanish, French and Italian as the same language.

Yeah right, don't try to be a know it all. it's the same written language.

[d'artagnan]

According to BBC, those refugee said they started the shooting first.. sigh... why cant they just bear the anger a bit and wait till us to talk for them... i've seen their military uniform etc, it's virtually the same as the chinese one. They should be a bit more patience...... if they want to stay in China, well, if they want to then it should be ok.

[VAMAN]

Yeah right, don't try to be a know it all. it's the same written language.
You mean their language is written in same script as Mandarin or Cantonese?

[d'artagnan]

You mean their language is written in same script as Mandarin or Cantonese?

Standard language is the same.

Mandarin is the standard ****unciation. Others are referred as dialets. Pretty much like German or Dutch, one standard language, loads of different accents.

[VAMAN]

Standard language is the same.

Mandarin is the standard ****unciation. Others are referred as dialets. Pretty much like German or Dutch, one standard language, loads of different accents.
I understand what you're talking about. But you know friend, if you're a Mandarin speaker and someone talks to you in that dialect, you won't be able to understand it. It is same as different language.

[d'artagnan]

I understand what you're talking about. But you know friend, if you're a Mandarin speaker and someone talks to you in that dialect, you won't be able to understand it. It is same as different language.

Same as german dialect, some of them can be understood by dutch but not germans who don't speak that language, so it's still the same language. Like it or not.

[Ordie]

And please, they are an ethnic Chinese group living in Burma for the last 300 years, they hold Burmese passport and if they are challenging the writ of the Burmese state, it is their own call and their own responsibility for the fallout.

Since thousands of ethnic Chinese are streaming across the border into China, it is now China's problem.

[TheMiddlePath]

The Kokang were basically Ming loyalist that fled south from the incoming Manchus.

Putting aside the ethnic ties, why would the CCP favour having a small armed group not under anyone's jurisdiction, with dubious sources of income and activities right next to its border???

And please, they are an ethnic Chinese group living in Burma for the last 300 years, they hold Burmese passport and if they are challenging the writ of the Burmese state, it is their own call and their own responsibility for the fallout.

Another fail Ordie, next.


Aren't these people also the descendents of the remnant of KMT 93 division, the 26 Army and the 8th army that retreated there after losing the Chinese civil war. They were abandon, unrecognized and forgotten by the rest of the world.

I guess they did what they could to survive. They fought the communist for the CIA, they fought for the Burmese against the Shan, then they foughtthe Burmese and Thais forthe Shan and other Ethnic group. Some fought the insurgents in Thailand for the Thais. Some also chose to fight for Drug warlord Khun Sa until he died.

They will survive...as long as there is money to be made..

KMT "Lost" Army in Thailand/Burma border growing Oolong Tea to survive.
http://www.pa-chouvy.org/Photos/Thailand2006/Photos-Thailand-2006-oolong-tea.htm (https://webmail.west.cox.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.pa-chouvy.org%252FPhotos%252FThailand2006%252FPhotos-Thailand-2006-oolong-tea.htm)

[Jaegermeister + Red Bull]

Aren't these people also the descendents of the remnant of KMT 93 division, the 26 Army and the 8th army that retreated there after losing the Chinese civil war. They were abandon, unrecognized and forgotten by the rest of the world.

I guess they did what they could to survive. They fought the communist for the CIA, they fought for the Burmese against the Shan, then they foughtthe Burmese and Thais forthe Shan and other Ethnic group. Some fought the insurgents in Thailand for the Thais. Some also chose to fight for Drug warlord Khun Sa until he died.

They will survive...as long as there is money to be made..

KMT "Lost" Army in Thailand/Burma border growing Oolong Tea to survive.
http://www.pa-chouvy.org/Photos/Thailand2006/Photos-Thailand-2006-oolong-tea.htm (https://webmail.west.cox.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.pa-chouvy.org%252FPhotos%252FThailand2006%252FPhotos-Thailand-2006-oolong-tea.htm)

Thats a different group/s. The Kokang are recognised as an ethnically Han Chinese minority group in Burma.

I dont think the KMT lost divisions/armies are or have been ever recognised as such. They might be recognised as armed groups/forces operating in a foreign nation without its consent, as such their destruction/liquidation by the regular forces of said countries should be welcomed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santikhiri

[Jaegermeister + Red Bull]

Since thousands of ethnic Chinese are streaming across the border into China, it is now China's problem.

In the absolute sense of the above, it is now China's problem but a tiny one. Dont think for a second that thousands of refugees would cause any lost sleep in Zhongnanhai.

In Chinese media, they are referred to as the Kokang minority from Burma, not ethnic Chinese.

[Flamming_Python]

China can't win. At least in the eyes of some people.

If instead the Chinese supported this group, they would be accused of seeking to create a 'greater China', or something like that.

[cn_habs]

In the absolute sense of the above, it is now China's problem but a tiny one. Dont think for a second that thousands of refugees would cause any lost sleep in Zhongnanhai.

In Chinese media, they are referred to as the Kokang minority from Burma, not ethnic Chinese.

They have been referred to as "Chinese from abroad", or huaren.

[Jaegermeister + Red Bull]

They have been referred to as "Chinese from abroad", or huaren.

Sorry mate, on CCTV/Xinhua news, they are called "Kokang ren" or Kokang people....

Not ethnic Chinese

Not Chinese from abroad

Not huaren

[TheMiddlePath]

Thats a different group/s. The Kokang are recognised as an ethnically Han Chinese minority group in Burma.

I dont think the KMT lost divisions/armies are or have been ever recognised as such. They might be recognised as armed groups/forces operating in a foreign nation without its consent, as such their destruction/liquidation by the regular forces of said countries should be welcomed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santikhiri


Thanks for the link. Very interesting reading. Glad that the KMT "Lost Army" finally found a home.

[cn_habs]

Sorry mate, on CCTV/Xinhua news, they are called "Kokang ren" or Kokang people....

Not ethnic Chinese

Not Chinese from abroad

Not huaren

On websites like CHINA.COM they were indeed called huren in an article I read there.

How did you learn mandarin?

[ruffneckzz]

it's all over.. most Kokang troops crossed into china and surrendered their arms to the chinese, traded their green uniforms for the blue shirts and pants..

Since Kokang rebel army is the smallest (1200) in burma, Tatmadaw could easily defeat them.

It won't be this easy with the Wa (20,000+) and the Kachins (8000+)

[ruffneckzz]

Kokang Conflict Highlights Tatmadaw Xenophobia
By WAI MOE
Thursday, September 3, 2009
http://www.irrawaddy.org (http://www.irrawaddy.org)


The Tatmadaw of Burma, one of the most nationalistic armies in the world, demonstrated its xenophobia during the past two weeks following its capture of Kokang-Chinese territory.
According to reports from the region on the northeastern frontier of Burma, following the seizure of Laogai, the Kokang capital, on Aug. 24, government soldiers questioned civilians about whether they were Burma-born Chinese or immigrants from China.
“After answering, Chinese from mainland China were beaten by soldiers,” said a source in Laogai.
Refugees who fled to China told reporters that shops, stores and other properties owned by Chinese had been looted in various towns in the Kokang region where an estimate 90 percent of businesses are owned by Chinese businessmen.
Anti-Chinese elements among government soldiers are not new. In 1967, an anti-Chinese riot in Rangoon and other cities caused led to dozens of deaths. Observers said late dictator Ne Win’s Burmese Socialist Programme Party used the Chinese as a scapegoat to deflect public anger at the government over a rice shortage in the country.
Anti-Chinese sentiment among Burmese has increased after the Chinese and Burmese governments signed border trading agreements in 1988, and the military junta signed ceasefire agreements with ethnic militias on the Sino-Burmese border in 1989.
After the opening of border trade and the ceasefire agreements, Chinese business interests and immigrants moved into Burma in large numbers, observers said. From the northern Shan State capital of Lashio to Madalay, the second largest city, to Rangoon, Chinese migrants and businesses along with the ethnic ceasefire groups, such as the Kokang and Wa, have taken on a higher profile among Burmese.
“They say they are Wa or Kokang, but we know they are actually Chinese,” said a businessman in Mandalay, citing his experience.
During two decades, Chinese have taken over businesses owned by Burmese in northern Shan State and Mandalay. Signs on many department stores, restaurants and shops in Mandalay and Lashio are printed in the Chinese language.
Intentionally or unintentionally, the special favors granted ethnic groups by Gen Khin Nyunt, the former Burma spy chief, produced a backlash against Kokang-Chinese and other ceasefire groups among the Tatmadaw’s soldiers.
From 1989 to 2004— before Khin Nyunt’s downfall—the Kokang and Wa were allowed to take their weapons to Rangoon and Mandalay. Kokang and Wa soldiers were untouchable under Khin Nyunt’s instructions even though they committed crimes.
When vehicles from Wa and Kokang groups passed army and police checkpoints, they were not searched.
In one incident in 1999, a member of the Wa army killed a businessman in downtown Rangoon after a business conflict. The police arrested the man but he was not charged, and later Wa officials took the man from police custody.
According to Mandalay residents, members of ceasefire groups such as the Wa and Kokang were known to use pistols in personal conflicts with local people in the early 2000s.
Chan Tun, a former Burmese ambassador to China, said that after ceasefire agreements were signed, the Wa and Kokang caused many problems in cities such as Rangoon and Mandalay, and many officers and soldiers in the regime’s army have developed a negative image of the two groups as a result.
The recent military conflict between the government and ethnic groups has divided public opinion in Rangoon and Mandalay, according to journalists.
“Some people here say it is the government bullying the Kokang-Chinese. But most people support the government,” said an editor of a Rangoon-based private journal.

[ruffneckzz]

Clouds of War Move Over Shan State
By WAI MOE
http://www.irrawaddy.org

More than 300 civilians from areas controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) have fled their homes in fear of hostilities breaking out between the Wa army and the Burmese government forces, according to several sources.
“I heard that 300 to 400 people from Wa towns had left their homes recently and headed to other towns in Shan State or to the Chinese side of the border,” said Sein Kyi of the Thailand-based Shan Herald Agency for News.

Burma analyst Aung Kyaw Zaw, who is based in Ruili on the Sino-Burmese border, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Wa sources had confirmed that hundreds of villagers from the townships of Hopang, Konlong and Panlong had fled to other towns in Shan State or to China to avoid being caught in the crossfire of a potentially bloody armed conflict.
The precautions come less than one week after an estimated 30,000 Kokang civilians fled to the Chinese side of the border due to a series of clashes between government soldiers and Kokang troops from the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).
The northeastern highlands of Burma are home to three major armed ethnic groups—the MNDAA, the UWSA and the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA)—all of which signed ceasefire agreements with the Burmese junta but have reportedly rejected its request to disarm and join its border guard force ahead of the 2010 election.
Last week, government troops captured Laogai, the Kokang capital, and at least 700 Kokang soldiers were forced to surrender their arms to the Chinese army after fleeing to Chinese soil.
Burma’s state-run daily, The New Light of Myanmar, reported on Wednesday that 5,811 refugees who fled to China had returned to the Kokang region.
“The region is now in stable condition and administrative machinery has become normal,” the state media said.
On Monday, the pro-junta newspaper reported that government troops had seized an illegal arms factory in the Kokang region.
However, many observers are skeptical about the restoration of stability in northeastern Burma as government forces build up their troop numbers in what would appear to be preparations for a continued offensive in the region.
Several analysts say the UWSA will be next on the military government’s hit list.
UWSA and NDAA
If, as predicted, the Burmese junta intensifies its military operations in northeastern Shan State, the greatest resistance will undoubtedly come from the UWSA, which Jane’s Intelligence journal estimates at 25,000 strong.
However, the Wa army is generally based on two fronts, one half in northern and the other half in southern Shan State with five divisions deployed along the Thai-Burmese border.
Last week, about 2,000 UWSA troops traveled to Kokang territory to join their allies, the MNDAA, against the regime’s army.
The northern three Wa divisions are currently on standby and say they expect an attack from the government army in the coming days.
Observers have said that a possible attack on the UWSA would be at Nandeng, a checkpoint town of 10,000 on the Sino-Burmese border.
Meanwhile, some analysts say the smaller force of the NDAA, also known as the Mongla group, based in eastern Shan state, would be the junta’s next target. The former Communist Party of Burma force now has an estimated 1,200 soldiers.
In recent days, the NDAA ordered some 400 Burmese workers in Mongla Township to leave the area in fear that there may be government spies among them. Several suspected Burmese army spies were reportedly arrested.
Sein Kyi said that Burmese military officials had in the past two days traveled to Mongla and advised the NDAA leaders that the clashes in the Kokang region were the result of an internal power struggle between Kokang leaders.
In recent days, the military government has claimed repeatedly that stability has returned to the Kokang region. However, observers note that the junta’s mission in the northeast would be incomplete if the ethnic ceasefire groups are not brought round into joining the border guard plan and thereby legitimizing the military-backed constitution and next year’s general election.