Myanmar military moves to crush Kokang Chinese

Bangkok - The Myanmar Army has occupied Laogai, the capital of the Kokang region in its eastern Shan State, sending thousands of refugees into neighbouring China while splitting the Kokang army into two opposing forces, media and resistance sources said Thursday. Laogai has been under Myanmar Army control since Monday, said Khuensai Jaipen, editor of the Shan Herald News Agency, a resistance media that monitors news in the remote Shan State. The seizure of the capital followed a split in the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), as the Kokang army has been called since it signed a ceasefire with the Myanmar government 20 years ago. According to border sources, MNDAA deputy chairman Bai Souqian, who is backed by the Myanmar military, now leads 200 Kokang troops, while MNDAA chairman Peng Jiasheng heads the remaining 800. Thousands of Myanmar soldiers and Bai's Kokang troops now occupy Laogai while Peng's followers have fled to the Chinese border, sending thousands of refugees into the Nansan district of Yunnan province, Khuensai said. The Kokang are an ethnic Han Chinese minority group who have lived for centuries in north-eastern Myanmar, once known as Burma. They formed one of the core groups in the Burmese Communist Party, now defunct, and are known to still have close ties with mainland China. Myanmar authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Peng, who has been accused of involvement in drug trafficking. Peng has in recent months openly opposed Myanmar's ruling junta's efforts to disarm and turn all ethnic minority forces into border militias under the army's control as part of the government's plan to hold a general election next year. 'It's been an open secret for a long time that the Kokang are involved in drug trafficking but only now are they taking action against Peng,' Khuensai said. Bai has supported the junta's border militia plan. Border watchers have opined that the Myanmar Army's move against the Kokang, one of the smallest ethnic minority forces in Shan State, would be followed by similar attacks on the United Wa State Army and Shan State Army, which have also rejected the government's calls to become border militias. It remained to be seen whether the Wa and Shan would join forces with the Kokang to oppose what appears to be a government push to pressure them into bowing to its demands that they lay down their arms and become border militia before next year's polls. 'A military alliance between the Kokang, Wa and Shan could raise an army of 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers that the Burmese army would have a hard time getting rid of,' said David Mathieson, a Myanmar watcher for Human Rights Watch.