China has called on Burma to end combat operations in a border area
that has sent thousands of people fleeing into China this month.
Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu Friday said Beijing hopes Burmese
authorities can "properly deal" with domestic issues to protect the
border area and safeguard regional stability.
The United
Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in Geneva expressed concern about
reports that between 10,000 and 30,000 refugees have fled Burma's
northeastern Shan state into China's southern province of Yunnan.
Civilians are fleeing the area to avoid getting caught in the fighting between the government troops and a rebel group.
Andrej
Mahecic, a spokesman for the U.N., commended Yunan authorities for
aiding refugees and expressed the agency's readiness to provide
support.
Yu Chunyan, a spokesman for the Yunnan provincial
government, told China's Global Times that refugees in the southwestern
Yunnan border town of Nansan are receiving emergency aid. But it is
not clear if local authorities have enough supplies to help so many
people.
Most of the refugees are members of the Burmese ethnic Chinese minority in Kokang.
The
U.S. Campaign for Burma says the exodus began earlier this month after
the Burmese army deployed troops to the Kokang region. It says on
August 8, a soldier raided the home of Kokang leader Phon Kyar Shin,
also known as Peng Jiashen, ostensibly to look for illegal drugs.
Phon
heads the Myanmar Democratic Alliance, a local militia group that has
had a long-term cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military. His
group offered resistance, sparking fears of renewed violence.
The
government has signed cease-fire agreements with several ethnic
militias, but relations between authorities and armed ethnic groups
have been volatile.
Burma is home to more than 100 ethnic groups.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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