(Rangoon) Fighting rages in northern Burma, near the Chinese border, after the coordinated offensive by ethnic minority groups, which challenge the junta in proportions not seen since the 2021 coup.
The clashes in Shan State, where the armed alliance of ethnic opponents claimed the capture of dozens of military positions, have caused the displacement of more than 23,000 people, according to the United Nations.
The region, dominated by mountains and jungle, has been the scene for several decades of clashes between the army and ethnic groups for control of resources linked to illegal activities, from drug trafficking to casinos, including online scams.
Here’s what we know on Friday.
Minority ethnic groups
Burma, made up of 135 ethnic groups, has around twenty conflicts in which, sometimes since the country’s independence in 1948, the Burmese army and dissident factions clash, indicated the International Crisis Group (ICG) in 2021 .
In Shan State, certain groups have taken advantage of agreements with former juntas to become masters of territories where illegal activities abound, from casinos to arms factories, according to experts.
Following the 2021 coup, the Taaung National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MNDAA), two local groups that participated in recent clashes, are training and equipping political opponents who have taken arms.
The leader of the current junta, Min Aung Hlaing, rose to prominence in 2009 for leading an offensive against the MNDAA in Laukkai, in the Sinister Kokang region of northern Shan State.
The MNDAA has since promised to retake the city.
At least four other major ethnic groups have so far stayed away from the fighting, including the United Wa State Army (UWSA), considered one of the largest non-state armies in the world.
The UWSA warned that it would only react in the event of a land or air incursion on its territory.
Drugs
The motivations of groups across Burma are diverse: fighting for more autonomy, for recognition of their ethnic or religious identity, granting themselves a share of the country’s many natural riches, such as jade, or lucrative drug trafficking. .
The geography of Shan State, both difficult to access for law enforcement, and ideally located near China, Laos and Thailand, has favored the growth of illegal laboratories which irrigate the entire continent.
Shan State is the epicenter of methamphetamine production in Southeast and East Asia, the United Nations noted.
The share of methamphetamine tablets produced by “small armed groups and militias in Shan State” increased from 3% to 26% between 2020 and 2022, according to a report published this year.
China
Shan State forms one of the links in the “New Silk Roads” that China is building with massive investments in infrastructure.
Two pipelines pass through the region to transport oil and gas from platforms in the Bay of Bengal to China.
Beijing also plans to run a high-speed line there to connect the landlocked province of Yunnan (south) to the Indian Ocean.
But Shan State’s chronic instability poses a headache.
China’s public security minister met with junta officials this week in Myanmar to discuss “security of important projects,” according to Chinese state media.
Online scams
The development of online scam centers in the northern part of Shan State is raising further concerns for Chinese authorities.
Criminal organizations are accused of kidnapping or luring with false promises Chinese nationals and citizens of other countries, to exploit them on sites where internet fraud is practiced on a large scale.
Scammers normally target their fellow countrymen, lured into investing their money on rigged investment platforms or other financial traps.
At least 120,000 people are believed to be prisoners in these centers in Burma, the United Nations said at the start of the year.
China has regularly asked the junta to wipe out these criminal organizations.
This is precisely what ethnic minority groups want to do by attacking the army, they said.
“China has always prioritized stability around its borders,” said Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group.
“But it wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the MNDAA manages to expand its influence along the shared border at the expense of the Myanmar military and its allied militias,” he said.