Myanmar forms Kokang region rehabilitation support committee

The Myanmar government has formed a rehabilitation support committee for Kokang region in northeastern Shan state, torn by weeks-long armed clashes, local media reported on Monday.

The Kokang Region Rehabilitation Support Committee, headed by U Hla Tun, Minister at the President's Office, will undertake rehabilitation tasks in the region with the president's special fund.

The rehabilitation tasks will cover Kokang's capital, Laukkai, to where displaced people had been returning successively from areas where they took refuge, since early last week as security had improved there following numerous armed clashes.

Cleaning-up work is being done by local military personnel together with local people, social organizations and departmental staff in a bid to improve the appearance of the town.

The government claimed that stability could be restored in Laukkai as its forces combed the area with a total of 1,314 local people, who had taken shelter in Lashio, a big city in Shan state in the northeast, having resettled in the Kokang capital since last week.

Heavy fighting first broke out on Feb. 9 between government forces and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) in Kokang region and as the clashes escalated, the government declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law in Kokang region on Feb. 17.

During the series of fighting, the government claimed earlier that 54 of its forces lost their lives with 105 others being wounded while about 72 of Kokang army, which the government terms as renegade group, died with seizure of some small weapons and ammunition.

The battlefield covered areas of Laukkai, Koneyan and Yan Lone Kyaine of Kokang region.

Of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting, some ran away to the neighbor country crossing border, while some to Lashio and Mandalay in the other parts of Myanmar. Endi