Myanmar Declares Martial Law in Troubled Kokang Region

Myanmar President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the Kokang region in the east and imposed a three-month period of martial law there in an announcement on state television today.

Fighting broke out on February 9 between the Myanmar army and an ethnic Kokang force called the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA).

At least 47 Myanmar soldiers and 26 MNDAA fighters have been killed since then, the state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported, and thousands of civilians have fled, either to other areas in Myanmar or over the border into China.

Unknown attackers shot and wounded two people today in a convoy of eight vehicles marked with the emblem of the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) that was attempting to transport civilians displaced by fighting in Laukkai, on the Chinese border, a witness said.

"We haven't had such an attack before," said MRCS spokeswoman Shwe Cin Myint. "This would be the very first."

A government soldier blamed the attack on the MNDAA.

The clashes have alarmed China, which fears that the influx of Kokang refugees will swell, and called this week for peace on the border.

In 2009, fighting between the rebels and the army pushed tens of thousands of refugees into southwestern China.

The MNDAA was formerly part of the Communist Party of Burma, a powerful Chinese-backed guerrilla force that battled the Myanmar government before splintering in 1989.

The latest fighting is a setback for government efforts to end a patchwork of insurgencies that have bedevilled Myanmar since shortly after its independence in 1948.