China is still providing military arms to the Burmese government, including a recent shipment of artillery cannons that were seen crossing the China-Burmese border on November 6, according to sources who observed the shipment.
The arms shipment was made in daylight despite strong international pressure on China not to provide weapons to the military regime, sources said.
A witness on the China-Burmese border told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that 21 artillery cannons were seen on seven large trucks crossing through Ruili, China, and Muse, Burma, on the China-Burmese border.
Another source who lives in Myitkyina said he had heard that weapons and ammunition were transported to Burma from China in the past few weeks.
The first source said the cannons—believed to be 155 mm, field-to-field fire—appeared to be Russian-designed copies manufactured in China. Burmese troops from Kyaukpadaung Township in Mandalay Division guarded the weapons along the route through Burma, he said.
Kyaukpadaung is the location of the headquarters of No 707 Artillery Camp Command led by Brig-Gen Than Tun.
Local sources said that weapons transported from China were usually sent from Kumming to the China-Burmese border and then to Mandalay in central Burma.
Aung Kyaw Zaw, a Burmese analyst on the China-Burmese border, said, “In the past, weapons usually were transported by trucks at night. But these were carried during the day. It looks as if China doesn’t care about the international pressure they face.”
Meanwhile, the US-based Human Rights Watch released a statement on Wednesday urging the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Burma in response to the Burmese military government’s continuing recruitment of children to serve in its army.
Jo Becker, a children’s rights advocate for HRW, said in a statement the army’s forced recruitment is designed to fill personnel shortages as a result of both increased desertion rates and army expansion.
The expansion includes new units established to utilize arms purchased from China, India, Russia and Ukraine, she said.
“Burma’s diplomatic supporters in the Security Council, China and Russia, are also its main arms suppliers,“Becker said.”These countries sell weapons to Burma with scant regard for the impact on the civilian population."
Recently, three members of the National League for Democracy, including a woman, Ma Cho, were questioned and briefly detained by Burmese authorities for work they were doing on the child recruitment issue.