Fierce fighting broke out in northern Myanmese
villages bordering China early on Sunday, resulting in at least two wounded in
a Chinese town as shells strayed across the border.
China’s defence ministry said the military was on
high alert and would take necessary measures to maintain security.
The fighting in Muse and Kutkai, border towns in
Myanmar’s Shan state, also killed two Myanmese civilians and wounded 25 others,The
fighting involved the Kachin Independence Army, Ta-ang National Liberation Army
and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.
Fighting broke out in several villages in the area
at around 2.40am and lasted until later in the morning.
Authorities in Wanding, Yunnan province, activated
an emergency response and deployed more armed police on the border. A hospital
in Wanding had received a Myanmese whose leg was wounded and a local resident
who had suffered an arm wound, online news portal Thepaper.cn reported.
Chinese border
villages were hit by stray shells. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Global Times, a Beijing-based tabloid affiliated with People’s
Daily, quoted an unnamed Chinese source as saying that about 80 Myanmese
refugees had entered Wanding.
CCTV reported that stray shells had fallen on the
Chinese side of the border, and one villager reported that the water tank on a
solar water heater on his roof was pierced.
But a resident in Jiegao township in Ruili, which
is adjacent to Muse, said the situation was calm.
“I’ve neither heard any gunshots nor seen any
Myanmese refugees,” the villager said, adding that life in Jiegao – only a few
kilometres from the border – was still normal.
Aye Aye, a resident of Muse, said: “People from the
border checkpoint are now fleeing to Muse town because of heavy fighting, but
we do not know which groups are fighting yet.”
The latest clashes are another blow to civilian
leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s hopes of forging a nationwide peace deal after years
of war among ethnic minorities in Myanmar’s border regions.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said
yesterday that parties to the conflict should show restraint to keep
confrontations from escalating.
South China
Morning Post
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