Refugees surge into China as Myanmar ethnic border conflict escalates

By James Pomfret | NANSAN, CHINA

Within earshot of mortar fire echoing from beyond a ring of hills, a sprawling relief camp in Southwestern
China is swelling steadily after fighting erupted last week between a rebel ethnic army in Myanmar and government
troops just across the border.
In a recent Reuters visit to the rugged area in southwestern Yunnan province, aid workers and those
displaced expressed fears of a more violent and protracted conflict than a previous flare-up in the Kokang region in
early 2015."Every day, more people come," said Li Yinzhong, an aid manager in the camp, gesturing at the mostly
Han Chinese refugees from Myanmar's Kokang region trudging through the reddish mud earth around rows of large
blue huts where they sleep on nylon tarpaulin sheets. "We will look after them until they decide they want to go back."
Blue disaster relief tents provided by the Chinese also dotted the terraced sugarcane, maize and tea
terraces flanking the mountainous winding road to Nansan. The town, close to the Kokang region of Myanmar's Shan
State, is providing refuge for a stream of refugees that Chinese authorities estimate number more than 20,000.
The violence is a blow to efforts by Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to reach a comprehensive
peace agreement with Myanmar's ethnic minorities, some of them in rebellions spanning decades.
The conflict is also fraying ties between China and Myanmar, which Beijing has hoped could be a key gateway in its
multi-pronged "One Belt One Road" strategy to promote economic links between China and Europe.
Kokang has close ties to China. The vast majority are ethnic Chinese speaking a Chinese dialect and using the yuan
as currency.
'STATE OF WAR'
The Kokang began fleeing when the rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a
surprise raid on Myanmar police and military targets in the town of Laukkai, resulting in the deaths of 30 people on
March 6.The Myanmar military has launched "56 waves of small and large clashes", using cannons, armored
vehicles and heavy weapons over the past two months, according to a statement published by the military on March
6 after the attack.Rebel forces who lay historic claim to the Kokang region have attacked government troops with
rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other military hardware.
In an "urgent notice" posted on Sunday on its official website, the MNDAA said the Kokang area was now in
a "state of war" as fighting worsened. On the Chinese side, paramilitary police have sent in battalions of
reinforcements, mostly in readiness for disaster relief, according to Chinese officials who spoke on background.
Reuters saw seven Chinese armored personnel carriers moving west along the hilly road towards Myanmar and the
relief camp sprawled across a muddy wasteland the size of 10 football fields.
The fresh unrest comes after fighting in early 2015 and in 2009 involving the MNDAA, both flare-ups
displacing tens of thousands of people.Ordnance has occasionally strayed into China, with five people in China killed
in 2015 during a round of fighting then.
This time round, the door to a village house was blown out, and the upper floor of the Anran hotel in Nansan
was shelled forcing its closure, according to local residents and one official. Reuters was unable to corroborate these
accounts.
"The Chinese will be very angry if it escalates to the level of 2015, said Sino-Myanmar expert Yun Sun, a
senior associate with the Stimson Center in Washington D.C.
Beijing wants the Kokang to be included in the comprehensive peace negotiations that Aung San Suu Kyi initiated
last August, he said.
The military has blocked that, saying the rebels can only join if they lay down arms first. "The Chinese actually tacitly
and privately support the Kokang being included in the negotiations, but they can't say that," Yun said.
UNRESOLVED PEACE
At around three in the morning on the day of the rebel raids, loud explosions and gunfire woke the Cao
family, prompting them to flee at first light with few possessions.
"I was scared," said Cao Junxiang, who fled in a convoy of four rudimentary, three-wheel farm lorries
tethered to powerful motorcycles -- joining a nearly 15-hour snaking exodus of jeeps, trucks, buses, carts and
motorcycles bound for China.
"More than half the people (in my village) left," he said, as others crowded around an open sitting area of a
Chinese village house transformed into a makeshift refuge.
Yao Xiao'er, the 49-year old head of the household, said she sent the farm vehicles across the border soon after
hearing the first bursts of distant thudding. She eventually got nearly 100 relatives and friends to safety including a
two-year-old toddler and a nonagenarian, half-blind, family matriarch, who was dozing on a tatty sofa.
One young mother with a baby strapped to her back said many refugees were seeking out odd jobs to make ends
meet.
"We have no money so some of us cut sugar cane," she said. "We get around one yuan for every 20 sticks
we chop, peel and uproot."
A Chinese taxi driver plying the route between a Chinese airport in Lincang and the seedy frontier casinos of
Myanmar's Laukkai, said business was drying up.
"No one is coming here anymore."

SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-insurgency-china-refugees-idUSKBN16K0JW
 Korea's Park ousted, headed for prosecution
By Bak Se-hwan and Ock Hyun-ju

SEOUL (Korean Herald/ANN News Desk) - South Korean President Park Geun-hye was officially
impeached on Friday morning, opening her up to criminal prosecution after a sweeping corruption scandal that
embroiled Samsung and top business interests.
South Koreas Constitutional Court on Friday ruled unanimously to remove President Park Geun-hye from
office, the capstone of a sweeping corruption scandal that has consumed South Korea for months.
With the decision, which is final and unchallengeable under Korean law, Park has become the nations first
successfully impeached president. The nation now must hold a presidential election within 60 days, making it likely to
fall on May 9.
A daughter of former President Park Chung-hee and the nations first female president, Park has been
embroiled in a scandal involving her longtime friend Choi Soon-sil since late last year. The parliament voted to
impeach her on December 9, following weeks of massive street rallies calling for her resignation amid a burgeoning
scandal involving her and Choi.
A total of 13 charges were levelled against Park. The key charges included that she let her friend Choi, who
holds no government post, meddle in state affairs and colluded with Choi to extort donations from local firms for two
entities under Chois control in exchange for policy favours.
The corruption scandal, however, has spread beyond Park and Choi to embroil some of South Koreas most
powerful families and business interests.
Prime among charges against Park Geun-hye is her dubious connection to the countrys top conglomerate
Samsung Group. Its de facto chief Lee Jae-yong is being detained on charges of having allegedly bribed Parks
confidante Choi in the form of donations to her makeshift nonprofit foundations. The counsel concluded Park was an
accomplice to Choi in attempting to extract 43 billion won ($37.6 million) from the technology giant, saying the two
friends shared economic interests.
The prosecutions special investigation unit will look into whether Lee permitted the donations with the intent
to induce Parks support or pressure the government for a controversial merger last year between two affiliates,
Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries. The integration facilitated Lees takeover of corporate control from Lee Kun-hee,
his incapacitated father and the groups chairman.
Other corporations, including SK and Lotte, the countrys third and the fifth largest conglomerates,
respectively, are also facing investigation under similar allegations of giving money to Chois two foundations, the Mir
and K-Sports foundations.
In addition to the bribery charges, Park is also suspected to have colluded with Choi on the promotion of Lee Sang-
hwa, a former executive in charge of global sales at KEB Hana Bank. Lee faces allegations he helped Choi and her
daughter Chung Yoo-ra secure loans at a far lower annual rate than average while heading the banks Germany
office.
Park then allegedly facilitated Lees promotion through former presidential secretary An Chong-bum, who
repeatedly called the Hana Financial Group chairman to promote him to an executive post. Parks legal team has
defended the move as part of her efforts to give opportunities to those with a great proficiency.
State prosecutors will also examine the Park administrations blacklisting of what it viewed as dissident
cultural figures, which the counsel called a systematic crime carried out under the presidents command.
After the blacklist fanned backlash within the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Park allegedly pressured senior
ministry officials to demote and then sack the opponents. Seven high-ranking officials, including former presidential
chief of staff Kim Ki-choon and former Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun, have been indicted over the issue, which was
used to sever state funding and other benefits to those blacklisted.

SOURCE: http://www.asianews.network/content/koreas-park-ousted-headed-prosecution-40966