Yunnan's border with Myanmar was back in the news yesterday after officials from China and Myanmar agreed to work together on maintaining stability in the area. The agreement comes after fighting in August between the Myanmar army and an ethnic Chinese militia caused more than 10,000 refugees to spill into Yunnan.

Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang met with Myanmar minister Tin Aung Myint Oo in Nanning yesterday, saying that the two countries should increase cross-border exchanges and cooperation to ensure stability in the area.

In August Myanmar's army took control of Kokong, which had previously been administered by a primarily ethnic Chinese militia outside of the control of the military junta that rules the country.

Many of the refugees who fled into Lincang prefecture on the Yunnan side of the border said that their businesses and homes had been looted by soldiers during the conflict. Fighting edged close to the border between the two countries and one Chinese soldier was killed on the Yunnan side.

In September relations between China and Myanmar had cooled noticeably, with Beijing taking the rare step of criticizing its strategic Southeast Asian ally for the violence and demanding that Chinese interests in the country be protected. Around the same time, a mass email calling upon Chinese volunteers to join the fight against the Myanmar army was circulating in China.

Yesterday's meeting in Nanning suggests that relations are back to normal between the two countries. For the ruling junta in Myanmar, China is a major source of revenue as well as political legitimacy and protection. China in turn benefits from access to Myanmar's vast energy resources and its Indian Ocean ports.

A nearly monthlong conflict between Myanmar's army and ethnic fighters has led to what may be more than 20,000 refugees in an information dead zone, with foreign journalists being ordered out of the area, according to a New York Times article.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that as many as 30,000 refugees have crossed the border into China since fighting between the Myanmar army and an alliance of four area ethnic groups known as the Myanmar Peace and Democracy Front (MPDF) broke out on August 8 in the Kokang region of northeastern Myanmar's Shan State.

China's Foreign Ministry said it was providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees, many of whom are Chinese businesspeople. At present, China's plans for dealing with the remaining refugees have yet to be made public. The government is also declining to comment on the current state of affairs in the several refugee camps in the towns of Nansan and Genma, located in Yunnan's Lincang prefecture.

China is one of the few Asian countries to have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, which codified non-refoulement, or the principle of refusing to send refugees to places where they are likely to be under threat again.

It is estimated that approximately 4,000 refugees have returned to Myanmar since fighting ceased two days ago.

Media in Thailand are reporting that Myanmar's ruling junta has sent troop reinforcements into Shan State for the purpose of consolidating control over the region – a move that could provoke more violence between Myanmar soldiers and ethnic militias and worsen the refugee situation.

Nansan refugee camp image: Reuters via New York Times

An attempt by Myanmar's ruling military junta to bring rebel ethnic fighters under its control has led to escalating tensions, reports of fighting and a looming specter of war, with thousands of refugees fleeing into southwestern Yunnan, according to a Reuters report.

China- and Thailand-based media outlets have reported that on August 8 the Myanmar army sent hundreds of troops to the region of Kokang in the country's northeastern Shan State. Kokong, which has held to a 20-year ceasefire with the Myanmar government in Yangon, is home to many ethnic Chinese as well as other ethnic groups.

According to statements released by a recently formed alliance of four area ethnic groups known as the Myanmar Peace and Democracy Front (MPDF), soldiers in Kokang are under pressure from Yangon to become part of a border security unit under the army's control in the runup to next year's national election, the first in 20 years.

Army troops have reportedly attacked a factory used by ethnic rebel soldiers to maintain and repair weapons, claiming that it was a production facility for illegal drugs. An armed standoff between army and ethnic fighters allegedly followed, sparking a flow of refugees out of Kokang into the western region of southwestern Yunnan's Lincang prefecture.

"Tensions are extremely high, with anticipation of resurgence of war, tens of thousands of ethnic people have fled," the MPDF statement said.

Next year's election in Myanmar will be the first since the 1990 election in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a clear victory, which was ruled null by the junta government. Would-be prime minister Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest shortly afterward and has spent most of the last two decades in the junta's custody.

Image: news.ifeng.com