CHINA-EXTERNAL: MYANMAR/INDIA
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According to the Yangon-based publication Weekly Eleven's website on July 30, eight Chinese nationals have been sentenced by a court in Myanmar to lengthy prison terms for transporting an arsenal of firearms and hand grenades while they lived in the country illegally. Seven were sentenced to 13 years of hard labour and one to 10 years. The eight Chinese had in their possession eight pistols, 1,860 rounds of ammunition, 31 grenades, three military knives, bulletproof vests and a telescope, when they were arrested on April 25 in Tamu, near Myanmar’s border with India. The Yongon-based Irrawaddy magazine reported that this marked the first time armed Chinese had been arrested there. A Chinese businessman with contact to rebel groups in Myanmar has been quoted as saying that said the eight were on their way to India. "They want to sell their arms and munitions to Indian insurgents," he said. A contradictory report in the state-run New Light of Myanmar, however, said the men had been on the run after committing a murder in Kokang, a largely autonomous area on Myanmar’s border with China predominately populated by ethnic Chinese. Myanmar’s largest guerilla force, the United Wa State Army (UWSA), said on July 30, that the eight Chinese nationals had trained on its territory.
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