Mosque, orphanage burned in new Myanmar violence

May 29, 2013
Associated Press
Todd Pitman

Associated Press/Daily Eleven Media - In this photo released by Daily Eleven Media, people gather around a burning mosque in Lashio, northern Shan State, Myanmar, Tuesday, May 28, 2013. There were no reported fatalities after Tuesday night's rioting in the northeastern town of Lashio, which was sparked by rumors that a Muslim man had set fire to a Buddhist woman, state television reported Wednesday. (AP Photo/Daily Eleven Media)

LASHIO, Myanmar (AP) — Hundreds of Buddhist men on motorcycles waved iron rods and bamboo poles and threw rocks in a northeastern Myanmar town on Wednesday, a day after a mosque and a Muslim orphanage were torched in a new wave of violence targeting the religious minority. Residents said a movie theater was burned as the mob sped around the town. 

Many Buddhists and Muslims stayed locked inside their homes and shops were shuttered after Tuesday's violence in Lashio town, near the border with China, the latest region to fall prey to the country's spreading sectarian violence. The rioting in Lashio was sparked by reports that a Muslim man had set fire to a Buddhist woman. 

Deadly violence between Buddhists and Muslims has occurred since last year in other parts of Myanmar, first in a western region and then in central towns. The new flare-up will reinforce doubts that President Thein Sein's government can or will act to contain the violence and crack down on racial and religious intolerance. 

Wednesday morning was quiet, but by afternoon several hundred young men, screaming and waving sticks, roamed the downtown area on motorcycles near City Hall. A Buddhist monk was seated on the back of one of the motorcycles, waving a stick. 

On another street, the crowd threw rocks at buildings. Many people were too afraid to step outside. Smoke could be seen over at least one area of town, and local politician Sai Myint Maung said a movie theater had been burned and that there were rumors that more troublemakers were gathered on the outskirts of the town. 

"The situation has changed 180 degrees. It was quiet the whole day and all of a sudden there is a fire and the situation has changed," he said. 

An officer from the No. 1 Lashio police station said police had been dispatched by truck to try to quell the new violence. The officer, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to release information, said at least four people were hurt. 

"My family is staying inside. We are afraid of being attacked," said one Muslim resident, Ko Maung Gyi, who spoke by telephone earlier from inside his locked home in Lashio's main Muslim neighborhood. 

"I never expected that such racial violence would erupt in Lashio," he said. "Our small town is multiethnic and we have lived in peace for a long time." 

There were no reported fatalities after Tuesday night's violence in the remote mountain town. 

Order was initially restored after authorities banned gatherings of more than five people. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed and many shops and streets were empty, Sai Myint Maung said. 

The government appealed for calm. 

"Damaging religious buildings and creating religious riots is inappropriate for the democratic society we are trying to create," presidential spokesman Ye Htut said on his Facebook page. The message noted that "two religious buildings and some shops" in Lashio were burned, without specifying whether they were Muslim or Buddhist. 

"Any criminal act will be dealt with according to the law," Ye Htut said. 

A 48-year-old man accused of setting fire to a 24-year-old Buddhist woman was arrested, state television reported. It said the man, identified as an Indian Muslim, threw gasoline on the woman. The report appeared to put to rest earlier questions over the man's religion. 

The man was charged with causing grievous injuries and arson, as well as drug possession due to stimulants found in his pocket, the TV report said. The woman was being treated for burns to her chest, back and hands. 

The report did not mention whether any members of Tuesday night's Buddhist mob were arrested, an omission likely to fuel more questions over whether minority Muslims can find justice in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar. 

Minority Muslims have been the main victims of the deadly violence, but so far there have been no criminal trials against members of the country's Buddhist majority. 

After Tuesday's alleged immolation, an irate crowd of more than 100 people, including Buddhist monks, gathered outside a police station demanding that the alleged attacker be handed over, state TV reported. 

The crowd then rampaged through the town, setting fire to Lashio's largest mosque and several shops, the television report said. 

The mob also set fire to a Muslim school and orphanage that was so badly charred that only two walls remained, said Min Thein, a resident contacted by telephone. Police and other witnesses confirmed the school burning. 

Myanmar's sectarian violence first flared in western Rakhine state last year, when hundreds of people died in clashes between Buddhists and Muslims that drove about 140,000 others, mostly Muslims, from their homes. 

The clashes seemed confined to that region, but in late March, similar Buddhist-led violence swept the town of Meikthila in central Myanmar, killing at least 43 people. Earlier this month, a court sentenced seven Muslims from Meikthila to prison terms for their role in the violence. 

Several other towns in central Myanmar experienced less deadly violence, mostly involving the torching of Muslim businesses and mosques. 

Muslims account for about 4 percent of Myanmar's roughly 60 million people. Anti-Muslim sentiment is closely tied to nationalism and the dominant Buddhist religion, so leaders have been reluctant to speak up for the unpopular minority. 

Thein Sein's administration, which came to power in 2011 after half a century of military rule, has been heavily criticized for not doing enough to protect Muslims. He vowed last week during a trip to the U.S. that all perpetrators of the sectarian violence would be brought to justice. 

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Associated Press writers Aye Aye Win in Yangon and Jocelyn Gecker and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Deadly violence between Myanmar's Buddhists, Muslims spreads to 3 more towns in heartland

Enlarge Image

Three Buddhist monks walk near Myanmar soldiers providing security in Meikhtila, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) north of Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, March 25, 2013. Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Meikhtila spread to at least two other towns in the country's heartland over the weekend, undermining government efforts to quash an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of people and displaced 10,000 more. On Sunday, Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, toured Meikhtila, where soldiers were able to impose order after several days of anarchy and called on the government to punish those responsible. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

March 25, 2013

Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar – Anti-Muslim mobs rampaged through three more towns in Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist heartland over the weekend, destroying mosques and burning dozens of homes despite government efforts to stop the nation's latest outbreak of sectarian violence from spreading. 

President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in central Myanmar on Friday and deployed army troops to the worst hit city, Meikhtila, where 32 people were killed and 10,000 mostly Muslim residents were displaced. But even as soldiers imposed order there after several days of anarchy that saw armed Buddhists torch the city's Muslim quarters, anti-Muslim unrest has spread south toward the capital, Naypyitaw. 

A Muslim resident of Tatkone, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Meikhtila, said by telephone that a group of about 20 men ransacked a one-story brick mosque there late Sunday night, pelting it with stones and smashing windows before soldiers fired shots to drive them away. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, he said he believed the perpetrators were not from Tatkone. 

A day earlier, another mob burned down a mosque and 50 homes in the nearby town of Yamethin, state television reported. Another mosque and several buildings were also destroyed the same day in Lewei, farther south. It was not immediately clear who was behind the violence, and no clashes or casualties were reported in the three towns. 

The upsurge in sectarian unrest is casting a shadow over Thein Sein's administration as it struggles to bring democratic reform the Southeast Asian country after half a century of army rule officially ended two years ago this month. 

Two similar episodes rocked western Rakhine state last year, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims in bloodshed that killed hundreds and drove 100,000 from their homes. 

The Rohingya are widely denigrated as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and most are denied passports as a result. The Muslim population of central Myanmar, by contrast, is mostly of Indian origin and does not face the same questions over nationality. 

The emergence of sectarian conflict beyond Rakhine state is an ominous development, one that indicates anti-Muslim sentiment has intensified nationwide since last year and, if left unchecked, could spread. 

Sectarian and ethnic tensions are not new in Myanmar. 

Muslims account for about four percent of the nation's roughly 60 million people, and during the long era of authoritarian rule, military governments twice drove out hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, while smaller clashes had occurred elsewhere. About one third of the population is comprised of ethnic minorities that practice Christianity or animism, and most have waged wars against the government for autonomy. 

Analysts say racism has also played a role. Unlike the ethnic Burman majority, most Muslims in Myanmar are of South Asian descent, populations with darker skin that migrated to Myanmar centuries ago from what are now parts of India and Bangladesh. 

The latest bloodshed "shows that inter-communal tensions in Myanmar are not just limited to the Rakhine and Rohingya in northern Rakhine state," said Jim Della-Giacoma of the International Crisis Group. "Myanmar is a country with dozens of localized fault lines and grievances that were papered over during the authoritarian years that we are just beginning to see and understand. It is a paradox of transitions that greater freedom does allow these local conflicts to resurface." 

"If a democratic state is the nation's goal, they need to find a place for all its people as equal citizens," Della-Giacoma said. "Given the country's history, it won't be easy." 

The government has put the total death toll in Meikhtila at 32, and authorities say they have detained at least 35 people allegedly involved in arson and violence in the region. 

On Sunday, Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general's special adviser on Myanmar, toured Meikhtila and called on the government to punish those responsible. 

He also visited some of the nearly 10,000 people driven from their homes in the unrest. Most of the displaced are minority Muslims, who appeared to have suffered the brunt of the violence as armed Buddhist mobs roamed city. 

Nambiar said he was encouraged to learn that some individuals in both communities had helped each other and that religious leaders were now advocating peace. He said the people he spoke to believe the violence "was the work of outsiders," but he gave no details. 

"There is a certain degree of fear and anxiety among the people, but there is no hatred," Nambiar said after visiting both groups on Sunday and promising the United Nations would provide as much help as it can to get the city back on its feet. "They feel a sense of community and that it is a very good thing because they have worked together and lived together." 

But he added: "It is important to catch the perpetrators. It is important that they be caught and punished." 

In Meikthila, at least five mosques were set ablaze from Wednesday to Friday. The majority of homes and shops burned in the city also belonged to Muslims, and most of the displaced are Muslim. Dozens of corpses were piled in the streets, some of them charred beyond recognition. 

"The city is calm and some shops have reopened, but many still live in fear. Some still dare not return to their homes," said Win Htein, an opposition lawmaker from the city. 

Myanma Ahlin, a state-run newspaper, carried a statement from Buddhist, Muslim, Christian and Hindu leaders expressing sorrow for the loss of life and property and calling on Buddhist monks to help ease tensions. 

"We would like to call upon the government to provide sufficient security and to protect the displaced people and to investigate and take legal measures as urgently as possible," the statement from the Interfaith Friendship Organization said. 

Muslims, who make up about 30 percent of Meikhtila's 100,000 inhabitants, have stayed off the streets since their shops and homes were burned and Buddhist mobs armed with machetes and swords began roaming the city. 

Little appeared to be left of some palm tree-lined neighborhoods, where the legs of victims could be seen poking out from smoldering masses of twisted debris and ash. Broken glass, charred cars and motorcycles and overturned tables littered roads beside rows of burned-out homes and shops, evidence of the widespread chaos that swept the town. 

Chaos began Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Once news spread that a Muslim man had killed a Buddhist monk, Buddhist mobs rampaged through a Muslim neighborhood and the situation quickly spiraled out of control. 

Residents and activists said the police did little to stop the rioters or reacted too slowly, allowing the violence to escalate. 

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Associated Press writers Todd Pitman and Grant Peck contributed to this report from Bangkok.

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Myanmar Muslims Recall Buddhist Assault

AP

December 29, 2012
Associated Press
Todd Pitman

SIN THET MAW - Stranded beside their decrepit flotilla of wooden boats, on a muddy beach far from home, the Muslim refugees tell story after terrifying story of their exodus from a once-peaceful town on Myanmar's western coast. 

They were attacked one quiet evening, they say, by Buddhist mobs determined to expel them from the island port of Kyaukphyu. 

There were chaotic clashes and gruesome killings, and a wave of arson strikes so intense that flames eventually engulfed their entire neighborhood. 

In the end, all they could do was run. 

So they piled into 70 or 80 fishing boats some 4,000 souls in all and fled into the sea. In those final moments, many caught one last dizzying glimpse of the town they grew up in of a sky darkened by smoke billowing from a horizon of burning homes, of beaches filled with seething Buddhist throngs who had spent the day pelting their departing boats with slingshot-fired iron darts. 

The Oct. 24 exodus was part of a wave of violence that has shaken western Myanmar twice in the last six months. But what began with a series of skirmishes that pitted ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya, a Muslim minority, appears to have evolved into something far more disturbing: a region-wide effort by Buddhists to drive Muslims out with such ferocious shows of hatred that they could never return. 

Although many Rohingya have lived here for generations, they are widely seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and most are denied citizenship. Similar mass expulsions have happened twice before under the country's former army rulers. But the fact that they are occurring again now, during Myanmar's much-praised transition to democratic rule, is particularly troubling. 

Both reformist President Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, have condemned the violence. Yet neither has defended the Rohingya, even though Muslims account for roughly two-thirds of the 200 dead, 95 percent of the 115,000 displaced and 90 percent of the homes destroyed so far, according to government statistics. 

Kyaukphyu was significant because those expelled from there included another Muslim minority, the Kaman, whose right to citizenship is recognized. That they too were targeted raises fears the conflict is spreading to Myanmar's wider 4 percent Muslim minority. 

For Myanmar, also called Burma, the town symbolizes the country's hopes of scoring a piece of the Asian economic surge. China is building a deep-water port and an oil pipeline terminal there. 

"We never thought this could happen to us," said Kyaw Thein, a 48-year-old Kaman who fled Kyaukphyu and is now a refugee in the island village of Sin Thet Maw. 

"We don't feel safe anymore, even here," he said. "Who says we won't be attacked again?" 

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The unrest in Rakhine state was triggered by the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman in late May, allegedly by three Rohingya men. But the crisis stems from something that goes back much further: a dispute over when Muslims first settled here, and who among them qualifies for citizenship. 

Buddhists say the Muslims are foreigners who came to seize land and spread the Islamic faith. Muslims say they settled here long ago, legally, and suffer widespread discrimination. The issue has been exacerbated by exploding population growth and what rights groups say is open racism against the darker-skinned Rohingya, who have South Asian roots. 

The Kaman, numbering perhaps only in the tens of thousands, are said to be descended from archers who once guarded a Mughal king. The Rohingya number at least 800,000 by U.N. estimates, and they have long been unwanted here. 

In 1977, Myanmar's military rulers, together with residents and local authorities, drove 200,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh, where 12,000 starved to death and most of the rest were forced back to Myanmar by the Bangladeshi government. A similar horror played out in 1991, when Myanmar's army drove out 250,000 Rohingya. 

After the June violence, prominent Buddhist monks issued written warnings against doing business with the Rohingya, or even speaking to them. Rohingya were kept away from schools, markets, even hospitals. Security forces restricted their movement, particularly around their refugee camps. International groups were threatened for providing aid. 

Then, in October, there were demonstrations against plans by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference to establish a liaison office in the state capital, Sittwe. One such march, in Kyaukphyu, brought out thousands. 

The rally spooked the Muslims who are roughly 6,000 of the town's 25,000 people. Rumors spread of an imminent new wave of arson attacks. Captains anchored their boats close to shore. One Muslim woman, Yeak Thai Ma, said some local officials began telling Muslims, "this place is no longer for you." 

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On Oct. 21, western Myanmar was hit with its second major spasm of violence. Within days, it had spread to nine of Rakhine state's 17 townships. 

Unlike the June unrest, which had displaced 24,000 Rakhine and 28,000 Rohingya in the first week the vast majority of the 35,000 refugees this time were Muslim, and 97 percent of property losses were Rohingya, compared with 78 percent in June, according to government statistics. 

Human Rights Watch says anti-Muslim assaults were organized by Rakhine groups, at times with support from security forces and local government officials. The government denies the charges. 

There were indications the violence was coordinated; on a single day, three major Muslim neighborhoods came under attack. 

One of them, the village of Yin Thei in Mrauk-U township, was overrun Oct. 23 by thousands of Rakhine armed with swords and spears. They slaughtered dozens of people who were buried in mass graves, according to Human Rights Watch. Satellite images of the village show almost nothing left but ashes. 

The same day, farther south, several hundred Rakhine descended on Pauktaw by boat and forced the entire Rohingya population to flee, the rights group said. An AP team that traveled there confirmed two seaside Muslim neighborhoods were charred along with a mosque that was apparently finished off with sledgehammers. 

That night, it was Kyaukphyu's turn. 

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Hla Win, a 23-year-old mother of two, was eating a dinner of fish curry and rice with her family when she heard shouting outside. It was 7 p.m., and the attacks had begun on East Pikesake district, where most of Kyaukphyu's Muslim fishing community lives. 

Her husband, a 26-year-old fisherman named Maung Lay, joined a group of men struggling to douse flames leaping from a mosque with plastic buckets of water. Security forces posted nearby ordered them to move back, and one opened fire, killing Maung Lay, according to several witnesses. 

Rare amateur video of that night, seen by The Associated Press, shows Buddhist mobs armed with long sticks or spears and hurling jars of burning gasoline toward homes swamped in bright orange flames as men shout in the darkness: "Throw! Throw!" and "Watch out!" 

In another clip, attackers can be seen flinging firebombs over a wall into more burning houses. They crouch behind rectangular shields of corrugated iron sheeting which are being pelted with rocks, presumably by Muslims defending themselves. 

As the night wore on, the adversaries wrapped bandannas around their foreheads red for Buddhists, white for Muslims. 

It is not clear what effort, if any, was made to stop the arson attacks. The video shows armed security forces walking among large crowds of Buddhists as fires burn, doing nothing to halt them. 

In one scene, a policeman or soldier orders a Muslim mob to back away as fires burn on one side of the road, or else "we will shoot you." A young Muslim man surges forward and fires a projectile from a slingshot. Gunshots ring out and the crowd retreats. 

A police chief in Kyaukphyu, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said more than 100 police deployed in those first few hours along with soldiers and firefighters. But they came under attack by Muslims, making it impossible to extinguish the blazes before the homes were destroyed. 

When the violence tapered off around 2 a.m., 69 homes had been wrecked, the police chief said. 

That night, hundreds of Kaman and Rohingya took refuge offshore, on Muslim-owned boats. 

Few, if any, slept. 

Shortly after dawn, it all began again. 

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As the sun rose, Kyaw Thein, who made his living painting homes and offices, tried to return to his own home to gather clothes, blankets and any valuables he could carry. 

But his house was already ablaze, and he retreated back to the boat. On the beach, Rakhine mobs were gathering. 

He began to run. 

Seconds later, someone plunged a machete into his upper right back. When he turned to see who, he was shocked: it was a Buddhist fisherman he had considered a friend. 

"We all asked the same question," said Kyaw Thein, who is nursing a gaping wound. "How could the people we know do this to us?'" 

The police chief said the Rakhine crowds swelled dramatically that morning as some 20,000 poured in from neighboring villages. 

Soon, the situation was out of control. 

As the fires spread, more and more Muslims sought refuge on the boats. Some sailed away, but a low tide stranded others for hours. 

Witnesses interviewed by The Associated Press said the two sides faced off along the beach, mostly at a distance, shouting insults. One Muslim man said security forces posted on the shore fired in the air to push back a Rakhine mob, but there were too many to stop. Other mobs surged forward, and clashes ensued. 

Tears streaming down her cheeks, Hla Hla Yee, a 36-year-old Rohingya woman, said a Rakhine mob on the beach hacked up her son. She watched from a boat as they held up his remains. Other witnesses corroborated her account. 

Investigations conducted by Human Rights Watch found that local security forces killed ethnic Kaman Muslims while soldiers stood by. 

Atrocities were committed by Muslims too. Matthew Smith, of Human Rights Watch, said they had attacked and in some cases killed Rakhine civilians before fleeing. One Muslim man confessed to holding a severed head aloft from one of the boats, Smith said. 

By the time it was over, more than 4,000 Muslims had fled on ships so packed there wasn't enough room to lie down. Another 1,700 moved to a makeshift camp outside town. 

Police say 867 homes were destroyed almost all of them Muslim. 

The official casualty toll was nine Muslims dead, and two Rakhine. 

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When the first refugees from Kyaukphyu arrived in Sin Thet Maw, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) away, they were met with two very different reactions. Rohingya villagers opened their homes to them; the Rakhine ignored them. 

The village, like many in Rakhine state, had already been split along sectarian lines even before violence first broke out in June. Its Buddhist inhabitants lived separated from the Rohingya by a long, wide field that cuts a neat line between the two. The communities traded used to trade, but all interaction ceased in June. 

A Rakhine named Said Thar Tun Maung, a local government administrator on the island, said 200 Buddhists, mostly women and children, fled when the refugees arrived, fearing they would be overwhelmed. He said he had not spoken to any of Muslims and did not care about the ordeal that brought them here. 

Within days, the refugee population rose even more as another flotilla that had initially landed in the state capital, Sittwe, joined them. 

Many of the displaced fled wearing only the clothes they wore. Now they sleep on a windy beach under white U.N. tarps and tents held up by bamboo sticks. They live off their savings, U.N. handouts of rice and beans, and shellfish they catch in the shallows. 

They have no schools to send their children to, and say authorities don't let them fish. They worry about maintaining the vital fleet of dilapidated fishing boats on which their future depends; they have few tools to repair them. 

The government has yet to help, or even ask how it can. 

Most of all, the refugees wonder what they'll do next. Some talk of making new lives for themselves in Sin Thet Maw. Others hope they can emigrate a dim prospect since few countries will take them. 

One thing is sure, though. 

"We can never go back to Kyaukphyu," said Kyaw Thein. "After what happened ... it will never be the same." 

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Associated Press Writer Yadana Htun contributed to this report.

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