"We lost the war. We were defeated," Jin, 32, said as he and eight other dejected former members of the Kokang rebel army -- all teenagers -- walked along a dirt track in remote mountainous Yunnan province towards the border.

Jin and his compatriots are the troubled face of the conflict that erupted when Myanmar government forces pushed last month into Kokang, a mainly ethnic Chinese region of Shan state.

The offensive broke a 20-year ceasefire that had left northern Myanmar's various ethnic rebel groups largely to themselves.

The fighting sent 37,000 refugees across the border into China, according to Chinese estimates, including hundreds and perhaps thousands of Kokang fighters.

And like countless defeated soldiers before them, the wiry-framed, crew-cutted young troops -- all in blue fatigues provided by Chinese police -- were left pondering the futility of taking on a more powerful enemy.

"The Myanmar government has tens of thousands of troops but we only had about 5,000. Most of us are between 14 and 20 years of age. But we fought them," said Jin.

"They've got a lot of good weapons. Their weapons are better than ours. Their soldiers are big and tall," said Jin, using the Mandarin spoken in Kokang.

"We know if they had captured us, they would have killed us."

The soldiers said they were part of a detachment of about 270 young fighters who crossed the border into China's southwestern Yunnan province after rebel leaders told their forces to disperse.

Chinese police confiscated their weapons and told them to make their way to the border town of Nansan about 30 kilometres (20 miles) away and return to Myanmar along with the other refugees.

"Right now, there is no more Kokang army. We have dispersed," said Chen Jinqun, whose boyish face betrayed his 16 years.

In a statement released Monday, the US Campaign for Burma said Myanmar's junta had already installed a new provisional government in remote Kokang.

The whereabouts of rebel leader Peng Jiasheng were not known, though he has spoken to Chinese media.

Refugees have told AFP they feared returning home to Kokang. Some told AFP they saw Myanmar government troops shooting unarmed civilians.

But with China signalling it would not tolerate any rebel activity on its soil -- particularly in light of its close ties to Myanmar's junta -- the nine rebels, all from farming families, have nowhere else to go.

Chen expressed dismay that an alliance with ethnic Wa rebels had not helped stem the government assault.

"We have a peace agreement with the Wa, but we didn't see any Wa soldiers (during the fighting) although we heard their guns," Chen said.

The statement by the US Campaign for Burma said "Wa troops did not help Kokang troops effectively," contributing to the Kokang collapse.

Observers have said Myanmar's government may be trying to isolate the various rebel groups in the region and pick them off one at a time, ahead of elections scheduled for next year.

Despite the long odds, the young rebels said they intended to return to Kokang and hoped to take up arms again.

"If they want to set up the (Kokang) military again and make it bigger, we will join up," said Chen, who acknowledged last week was the first time he had ever fought.

"We were never afraid."

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