Myanmar holds 100 Chinese in restive area
Print Edition
MORE than 100 Chinese citizens trapped by fighting between government troops and insurgents in northern Myanmar have been arrested and are being held by the Myanmar government, a Chinese embassy spokesman in Yangon said yesterday.
Pan Xuesong said representatives from the embassy arrived in the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina on Monday to meet with more than 100 Chinese who were being held in a prison there.
The Chinese newspaper Global Times reported on Monday that Chinese nationals were among 2,000 people trapped in the state, which borders southern China, where the Myanmar military has been battling the rebel Kachin Independence Army (KIA) for years.
The local government claimed the Chinese had entered Myanmar illegally, but that the arrested workers denied this, Pan said.
“The embassy is working for their release,” he said.
The Chinese nationals included miners, jade traders and merchants.
Earlier yesterday, China’s foreign ministry denied a report that hundreds of its citizens had been trapped in the fighting.
“According to a preliminary investigation by our joint investigative group in our consulate in Myanmar, it is not true that there are a large number of Chinese citizens trapped in the crossfire zone,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.
The risk of fighting spreading in the heavily militarized border region is a worry for China, which has built two oil and gas pipelines through its Southeast Asian neighbor to improve energy security.
The KIA is the second-largest of about 20 ethnic armed groups in Myanmar.
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