Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
Myanmar's Budhist - Muslim Riots.
A country of southeast Asia on the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Site of ancient Mon and Myanmarn kingdoms, Burma was a province of British India from 1886 to 1937 and a separate crown colony from 1937 to 1948, when it gained its independence. The civilian government was overthrown by a military coup in 1962 and again in 1988. The country was officially renamed Myanmar in 1989.
A country of southeast Asia on the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Site of ancient Mon and Myanmarn kingdoms, Burma was a province of British India from 1886 to 1937 and a separate crown colony from 1937 to 1948, when it gained its independence. The civilian government was overthrown by a military coup in 1962 and again in 1988. The country was officially renamed Myanmar in 1989.
Myanmar is a country with sevral localized fault lines and grouses that were simply papered over during the authoritarian past. It is a paradox of transitions that greater freedom does allow these local conflicts to resurface. Therefor, sectarian and ethnic tensions are not new in Myanmar, which is also home to small Christian, Hindu and animist minorities. Muslims account for about 4 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 nation’s population is comprised of ethnic minority groups, and most have waged wars against the government for autonomy. Unlike the ethnic Myanmar majority, most Muslims in there are of South Asian descent, populations with darker skin that migrated to Myanmar centuries ago from what are now parts of India and Bangladesh.
Muslims in Meikhtila, which makes up about 30 percent of the city’s 100,000 inhabitants, appeared to have borne the brunt of the latest devastation. At least five mosques were set ablaze from Wednesday to Friday last week, and most homes and shops burned were Muslim-owned. In Tatkone, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Meikhtila, men ransacked mosques. A day earlier, another mob burned down a mosque and 50 homes in the nearby town of Yamethin. Edginess over the situation spread Monday to the nation’s largest city, Rangoon, more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) south of Meikhtila. The government has put the total death toll in Meikhtila at 32 and about 1000 people displaced. 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.
President Thein Sein had declared an emergency in central Myanmar on Friday and deployed army troops to the worst-hit city, Meikhtila. But even as soldiers restored order there after several days of anarchy in which armed Buddhists torched the city’s Muslim quarters, the unrest has spread south toward the Provincial capital, Naypyitaw. The upsurge in sectarian unrest is casting a shadow over Thein Sein’s administration as it struggles to make democratic changes in the Southeast Asian country after half a century of army rule officially ended two years ago this month.
On Sunday, Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general’s special adviser on Myanmar, toured Meikhtila, visiting displaced residents and calling on the government to punish those responsible. 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.
Similar violence that rocked western Rakhine state last year, pitting ethnic Rakhine Buddhists against Rohingya Muslims, killed hundreds and drove 100,000 from their homes The Rohingyas 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 latest bloodshed “shows that inter-communal tensions in Myanmar are not just limited to the Rakhine and Rohingya in northern Rakhine state. 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. Analysts say racism has also played a role
President Thein Sein had declared an emergency in central Myanmar on Friday and deployed army troops to the worst-hit city, Meikhtila. But even as soldiers restored order there after several days of anarchy in which armed Buddhists torched the city’s Muslim quarters, the unrest has spread south toward the Provincial capital, Naypyitaw. The upsurge in sectarian unrest is casting a shadow over Thein Sein’s administration as it struggles to make democratic changes in the Southeast Asian country after half a century of army rule officially ended two years ago this month.
On Sunday, Vijay Nambiar, the U.N. secretary-general’s special adviser on Myanmar, toured Meikhtila, visiting displaced residents and calling on the government to punish those responsible. 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.
