Beijing – Peace has now more or less returned to a part of Myanmar which erupted in violence last month, pushing thousands of refugees into China, the country’s ambassador to Beijing was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

In August, Myanmar’s army overran Kokang, a territory that lies along the border with the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan and was controlled for years by an ethnic Chinese militia that paid little heed to the central government.

Many of the refugees were ethnic Chinese, some of whom were Chinese citizens, and complained their houses and businesses had been sacked and looted during the violence.

Last week, China rapped the former Burma over the violence, demanding the government protect Chinese citizens and make sure such an incident did not happen again.

Myanmar’s ambassador to China, Thein Lwin, told the official China News Service that Kokang was now peaceful again, and that he had “sympathy” for residents’ losses caused by the clashes.

He said he was “deeply grieved” at the death of two Chinese during the unrest.

“At present, Kokang has basically returned to normal, and all legal Chinese enterprises have already reopened,” he was paraphrased as saying.

“The Myanmar embassy in China has kept in close touch and cooperated with the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and have worked hard together to make sure this incident was solved in the most appropriate way.”

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)