'30 killed' after rebel group attacks Myanmar town

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) - At least 30 people were killed after an ethnic rebel group attacked a town near country´s eastern border with China Sunday evening, authorities said Monday.

The ethnic Kokang rebel group -- Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) – has been accused of the surprise attack on the small town of Laukkai in restive Shan state.

"Twenty dead bodies were found, and it is confirmed that five traffic police and five civilians were killed during the raids," the Office of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement on Monday.

The MNDAA, led by the ethnically Chinese Peng Jiasheng, was formed out of the China-backed Communist Party of Burma, which later disbanded in the late 1980s.

Scores of people died in 2015 when MNDAA troops entered the Kokang self-administered region.

In November last year, the MNDAA along with the powerful Kachin Independent Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Arakan Army -- known as the Northern Alliance -- had jointly attacked police stations, military outposts and a trade zone in Shan’s Muse Township.

Several rebel groups, including those in the Northern Alliance, had refused to sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement between Myanmar’s previous quasi-civilian government and eight rebel groups in October 2015.

Despite a call from Aung San Suu Kyi for joining government peace process, seven rebel groups led by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) -- the most powerful ethnic militia group -- had agreed not to sign the agreement, but said they would find another way to forge peace in the country.

However, a rebel leader on Friday said signing of the ceasefire deal is likely after representatives from the government and United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) – an umbrella association of seven non-signatory rebel groups to the agreement -- reached an agreement in principle over nine points after a series of meetings this week.

“If military agrees to our nine-point proposal, ethnic rebels will sign NCA [ceasefire agreement] and join the peace process,” Khu Oo Reh, leader of the UNFC delegation, told the local newspapers.