China began military drills on its border with Burma on Saturday, November 25, urging its nationals to urgently leave the country’s north, which has been plagued by fighting since late October. Indonesia, for its part, has stepped up its maritime patrols in the Aceh region to prevent the arrival of new boats carrying Rohingya refugees, more than a thousand of whom have disembarked in a week, police and local officials said on Saturday.
Clashes have intensified in Burma, particularly in much of northern Shan state, near the Chinese border, forcing more than 80,000 people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations on the ground.
Last month, an alliance of several insurgent movements representing ethnic minorities launched a major offensive against the army in regions near the Chinese border. These rebels captured dozens of military positions and a strategic city for trade with China.
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“Real combat exercises”
In this context, the Chinese army has launched “real combat exercises” along the border with Burma, its Southern Command said on Saturday in a statement that did not specify the duration of the operations or the number of soldiers involved.
These exercises aim to “test the troops’ ability (…) to control and close the borders and strike with firepower,” explains the army, ensuring that it is “ready to respond to all types of emergencies “. China has informed the Burmese army about these exercises, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said on Saturday.
On Friday, junta-backed Myanmar media said opponents of the regular army had used drones to drop bombs on vehicles in Muse, a border town.
According to Global New Light of Myanmar, a state media outlet, one hundred and twenty vehicles “transporting household goods, consumer goods, clothing and construction materials” were destroyed in Thursday’s attack.
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A significant part of trade with China passes through this zone. The several-week blockade has deprived the Burmese army of liquidity that has become precious in an economy that has collapsed since the 2021 coup.
Amid the deteriorating security situation, China on Friday urged its nationals to leave northern Burma “as soon as possible” and stay away from the fighting.
Indonesia tries to “prevent Rohingya arrival”
“Police are patrolling 24 hours a day, seven days a week to prevent Rohingya refugees from arriving in eastern Aceh,” Indonesian police chief AKBP said on Saturday. Andy Rahmansyah in a press release. He added that the order had been given to “intensify surveillance in coastal areas both on the coast and in the Strait of Malacca to prevent the arrival of Rohingya.”
Since November 14, more than a thousand Rohingya refugees have arrived in Indonesia’s far western Aceh province. This is the highest number of arrivals since 2017. Villagers tried to push refugee boats back into the sea last week, but authorities eventually welcomed them and transported them to a makeshift accommodation center.
Bangladesh blocked Rohingya from leaving the country
The predominantly Muslim Rohingya are persecuted in Burma and every year thousands of them risk their lives on dangerous and costly sea journeys from Bangladesh, mostly aboard makeshift boats.
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Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention and says it is not obliged to accept migrants arriving from Burma
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Bangladesh, in turn, is home to around a million Rohingya, including around 750,000 who fled the oppression of the Burmese army in 2017 and are being investigated by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for “acts of genocide”.
On Saturday, Bangladesh police said they had “prevented 58 Rohingya from leaving” the previous evening, including nine men, 16 women and 33 children, as they left refugee camps to embark at Teknaf, a river port on the border. to travel to Indonesia by sea. “We have arrested two suspected smugglers from Bangladesh,” Teknaf police chief Osman Goni told Agence France-Presse.