NANSAN — Chinese authorities began pulling down tent camps Tuesday as the number of refugees returning to Burma fell sharply from the thousands the day before.
While deadly fighting has reportedly ended between Burma's military and armed ethnic rebels in the country's northern Kokang region, monitoring groups warned that such battles could resume, along with widespread looting and damage to shops and homes.
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| A Burmese border guard stands on duty near a woman attempting to carry a TV set and a baby near a line of people arriving at the Burma-China border gate in Kokang city on Monday. (Photo: AP) |
More than 30,000 civilian refugees had streamed into China's Yunnan province to escape the three days of fighting, which broke out after hundreds of Burmese soldiers moved into Kokang to pressure wary rebels to give up their arms and become border guards.
The country's military junta wants stability with its several armed ethnic groups before next year's national elections, the first in nearly 20 years.
Chinese authorities housed the refugees in up to seven makeshift camps in Yunnan, and about 4,000 returned home on Monday. But the returnees dwindled to a trickle on Tuesday, with about 30 seen returning during a half-hour period at the Nansan border crossing.
Many thousands remained in Yunnan and it was not clear whether they intended to stay or return. Chinese officials refused to release information about the latest situation Tuesday morning and ordered foreign journalists to leave the area.
"Chinese people don't really want to stay over there anymore," said Zhang Suzhen, a Chinese citizen heading back to Kokang to look after her shop.
"Some of the people have lost everything they own," she said.
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| A Chinese soldier is followed by a young refugee as he helps them with bags towards the Burmese border. (Photo: Getty Images) |
At a makeshift camp in Nansan, authorities had dismantled many of the emergency relief tents used to house the refugees. Others who had fled remained camped in adjacent unfinished buildings, their laundry hanging from the frameless windows.
The crisis showed how Burmese ruling junta can sow instability that spills into China, prompting a rare request from Beijing last week that the generals calm the situation and protect the interests of Chinese nationals there.
The junta said the three days of clashes killed 26 government soldiers and at least eight rebels.
Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma, said Burmese forces were continuing to pour into the northeast, confiscating private vehicles along the way, as a prelude to more fighting.
China has maintained close economic and diplomatic ties with the largely isolated junta, and Chinese state oil companies have signed contracts to buy oil and natural gas from offshore fields that are to be pumped through pipelines into Yunnan.
Large numbers of Chinese citizens have migrated to Burma for business, and Chinese companies are helping build dams on the Salween river in Burma. Critics say the military often commits human rights abuses as it tries to clear areas for construction.
Despite its policy of nonintervention, China may try to persuade Burma to hold its fire to ensure border stability ahead of the October 1 celebrations of the 60th anniversary of communist China, said Lai-Ha Chan, a researcher on China at Australia's University of Technology, Sydney.
Chan said more serious or intrusive political steps are unlikely, adding, "Myanmar [Burma] still holds ideological and material value for China."
