A Chinese businessman said this morning that he is planning to return to Kokang today to settle his unfinished business as he was assured of the situation returning to normal.

“Like me, construction contractors are being requested to return to complete their contracts,” he adds.

The latest development follows a meeting on August 13 in Laogai between Maj Gen Aung Than Tut, Commander of the Lashio-based Northeastern Region Command, and the leadership of the Laogai-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), better known as the Kokang Army. No details of the agreement have been disclosed as yet.

The Burmese Army and the Kokang Army nearly opened fire on each other, when the former forced its way to a place near the Sino-Burma border where a suspected arsenal is believed to be located. The four to five hours face off ended only after the Chinese intervened, according to two separate reports.

The crisis triggered mass evacuation of Kokang and non-Kokang residents of Laogai into China and surrounding villages.

The “returning to normal” report however contradicts another story filed by a SHAN reporter from the border this morning, which says the regional commander has issued a directive calling on the non-Kokang residents to leave the area. “People from Lashio, as well as other districts, are not allowed to stay in Kokang anymore,” said a trader from Lashio, the northern Shan State capital.

Kokang and its southern neighbours the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and  the National Democratic Alliance Army-Eastern Shan State (NDAA) are members of the  Peace and Democracy Front, an alliance formed  by former ethnic armed units of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). The grouping has also reportedly concluded separate military pacts with its most immediate western neighbours: the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Shan State Army (SSA) “North.”