[Dhaka Tribune] At least 30 people were killed Monday in a day of intense fighting in a town on Myanmar’s border with China, authorities said, after rebels dressed in police uniforms launched a surprise raid.
Artillery and small arms fire continued throughout the day in Laukkai, a main town in the Kokang region of the northeastern state of Shan.
The festivities are some of the worst to break out in the Chinese-speaking Kokang region since fighting in 2015 left scores dead and forced tens of thousands to flee across the border into China.
Myanmar is already torn by various ethnic insurgencies. But the Kokang conflict has raised tensions with its giant neighbour.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s government is desperate to end the decades-long borderland conflicts, but intensifying fighting threatens peace efforts.
Rebels from the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched an attack early Monday against police and military posts, according to Suu Kyi’s office.
A separate group of fighters later attacked locations in the main town.
"According to initial information, many innocent civilians including a primary school teacher... were killed because of attacks by the MNDAA gang," the State Counsellor’s Office said in a statement, adding some attackers wore local police uniforms.
The statement, accompanied by grisly pictures of the dead and maimed, said at least five civilians and five local police were killed in the fighting.
It added that a further 20 "burned bodies" had been found alongside weapons.
Unverified video shared on social media appeared to show parts of the town still ablaze on Monday afternoon while civilians scurried to safety amid the rattle of small arms fire.
The Northern Alliance, an umbrella group of rebels including the MNDAA which has yet to join national peace talks, confirmed its members were fighting in Laukkai.
But in a Facebook post it said they carried out the attack "to resist an enemy offensive in self-defence" and cited Myanmar military operations since December.
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03/07/2017 00:00 ||
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This may be China taking steps. It was a major backer of ethnic Chinese-led Communist guerrilla movements in non-Communist Southeast Asia until the late 70's, when Uncle Sam normalized relations with China, leading to a kind of detente between China and its non-Communist neighbors.
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