Myanmar has arrested 51 people for theft in an area rocked by clashes between government forces and ethnic rebels, sentencing almost half of them to two years' hard labour, state media said Thursday.
Thousands of refugees poured across the border into China from northeastern Myanmar in recent weeks as the ruling junta launched an offensive in Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Myanmar's troubled Shan state.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said 25 people were each given two years in jail with hard labour on Tuesday after being arrested on Sunday with 12 Chinese motorcycles, a bicycle, a television, and two sacks of rice.
Authorities were to take "deterrent action" against another 26 people arrested in Shan state with stolen clothes, bags of rice and household items, the English-language government mouthpiece said.
The paper also reported that 7,848 people who had fled to China had now returned via border checkpoints by Wednesday as "stability and peace have been back to normal" in Shan State since August 29.
China on Tuesday urged Myanmar to maintain peace in the region. The fighting violated a 20-year ceasefire with Myanmar's various rebel groups.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and China is the isolated state's sole major ally and trade partner.
Energy-hungry China is an eager buyer of Myanmar's sizeable natural gas reserves and has in the past tried to shield the junta from international sanctions imposed over its poor human rights record.
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