5 wounded in attack on Red Cross-flagged vehicle in Myanmar

Five people, including a relief worker, have been wounded in an attack on a Red Cross-flagged vehicle in volatile northeastern Myanmar near the Chinese border.

A “Myanmar Red Cross volunteer, a journalist and three civilians” were injured in the attack on a local aid organization’s vehicle on Saturday, the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) said in a statement on Sunday.

The vehicle was carrying 13 people, mostly civilians and national journalists, from the border town of Laukkai to Kunlong, a principal town in Shan State.

“They fired continuously for half an hour,” a journalist who was on the vehicle said, adding that the group was finally rescued by Myanmar army forces.

Htun Myat Lin, a spokesman for the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), a main rebel group in the country, denied claims that the group was responsible for the attack.

Lin claimed that the army was trying to “flare up” tensions between rebels and civilians.

The MNDAA spokesman also claimed that government forces have used “a lot of artillery” fire against the rebels over the past days.

Similar incidents

The second such attack within a week, the Saturday incident occurred only four days after an attack on another MRCS-led convoy, which left two aid workers wounded, and forced local relief workers to suspend work in the region.

Fierce fighting, centered on the town of Laukkai in Kokang, has surged in the remote and rough region since ethnic Kokang rebels launched a series of surprise attacks on February 9.

It is the deadliest confrontation in the region since 2009 and has renewed serious doubts over the government’s efforts to reach a nationwide ceasefire ahead of the general elections slated for later this year.

At least 30,000 civilians in Myanmar have fled across the border into southwestern China, while tens of thousands have been displaced along the border on Myanmar’s side.

MIS/HJL/SS

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