Flow of Burmese Refugees into China Dropping

The number of refugees crossing into China to escape fighting in Burma fell to a trickle Monday as government forces appeared to have defeated an ethnic militia.

Hundreds of rebels from the largely ethnic Chinese Kokang region have already fled clashes in northeastern Burma, surrendering their weapons and uniforms to Chinese border police and crossing to safety after several days of skirmishes.

Refugees from the Kokang region in Burma's Shan State rest at a temporary shelter at the border town of Nansan, China's Yunnan province.

Burma's military junta said three days of fighting had killed 26 government soldiers and at least eight rebels. It said the fighting had ended and "the region has now regained stability."

The United Nations and Chinese officials say more than 30,000 civilian refugees have streamed into China to escape the fighting, which broke out last week after hundreds of Burmese soldiers moved into Kokang, a region run by a local militia.

Burma is trying to consolidate control over several armed ethnic groups along its borders to ensure smooth conditions for next year's national elections, the first in nearly 20 years. Several groups are resisting pressure to join with the military to become border guards ahead of the elections.

There was no way to independently verify the refugee figures, and AP reporters were barred access to refugee camps, where small groups of two or three refugees continued to arrive on Monday morning, a sharp drop from the large numbers who entered over the weekend.

A factory manager in the Chinese border town of Nansan said Monday the number of people crossing the border had dropped to almost zero, and no shooting in the area had been heard since about 2:30 p.m. On Saturday.

"It's all calm now," said the man, who gave only his surname, Li.

Local government officials and police refused to comment.

Injured Kokang soldiers receive medical treatment in a hospital at the border town of Nansan, China's Yunnan province.

The clashes and the flow of refugees have strained Beijing's close relations with Burma's military junta, prompting a rare demand last week from China's Foreign Ministry for Burma to end the fighting and protect the interests of Chinese citizens in the area.

China's official XinhuaNews Agency said Burma had apologized for the death of one Chinese national from three artillery shells fired into Chinese territory. That followed China's issuing of a "stern representation" over the matter, Xinhuasaid.

The agency quoted local police chief Meng Sutie as saying 37,000 people, both Burmese and Chinese, had fled into China since the fighting broke out.

The crisis comes amid an all-out push by China to ensure stability ahead of October 1 celebrations to mark 60 years of communist rule. China borders a number of volatile states, including Pakistan and North Korea, and the country's leaders have struggled to maintain order within the country, particularly in Tibet and Xinjiang, where ethnic minorities have chafed against rule from Beijing.

Burma's conflict area is on the fringe of the drug-producing Golden Triangle region where Burma, Thailand and Laos meet. Many of the ethnic armies there have used the trade in heroin and amphetamines to finance their operations, with much of their product smuggled into China.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is the second largest exporter of heroin after Afghanistan.