Myanmar forces restore order after anti-Muslim riots
2 May 2013 6:18 AM IST
Hundreds of police and troops restored order in central Myanmar on Wednesday after a fresh outbreak of sectarian violence in which one man was killed after Buddhist mobs trashed property owned by Muslims following a minor street incident.
In all, 10 people were injured in Oakkan and nearby villages, just 60 miles (100 km) north of the commercial capital Yangon, and one died of a head wound, the deputy police commissioner of Yangon, Thet Lwin, told a news agency.
Police arrested 18 people who had been charged with theft, assault and arson as well as gathering in a mob, he said. ‘They are safe now and can go back to their homes,’ he said of Muslims who had been forced to flee into surrounding woods to escape the mobs. The latest wave of sectarian violence erupted in March in the central town of Meikhtila, causing 44 deaths and displacing an estimated 13,000 people, most Of them Muslims. A Reuters investigation found that radical Buddhist monks had been actively involved in the violence and in spreading anti-Muslim material around the country before and after.
Tension has remained high, and state television said the latest unrest was started when an 11-year old novice monk was hit by a Muslim woman while collecting alms in Oakkan. Other reports said the two had bumped into each other in the street.
‘The crowd of Buddhists hurled stones at a mosque damaging six windows and electricity meter boxes. The crowd destroyed the facades of 25 shops,’ the MRTV television station said in a bulletin late on Tuesday.
Koko Naing, 28, a Muslim resident of nearby Kyaw Boi Lay whose home had been destroyed, told Reuters that at least three different mobs had attacked his village from 3:30 pm on Tuesday and on into the night. He said things had been fine in the village until the trouble but soured quickly afterwards, with monks making anti-Muslim speeches in monasteries.
In all, 10 people were injured in Oakkan and nearby villages, just 60 miles (100 km) north of the commercial capital Yangon, and one died of a head wound, the deputy police commissioner of Yangon, Thet Lwin, told a news agency.
Police arrested 18 people who had been charged with theft, assault and arson as well as gathering in a mob, he said. ‘They are safe now and can go back to their homes,’ he said of Muslims who had been forced to flee into surrounding woods to escape the mobs. The latest wave of sectarian violence erupted in March in the central town of Meikhtila, causing 44 deaths and displacing an estimated 13,000 people, most Of them Muslims. A Reuters investigation found that radical Buddhist monks had been actively involved in the violence and in spreading anti-Muslim material around the country before and after.
Tension has remained high, and state television said the latest unrest was started when an 11-year old novice monk was hit by a Muslim woman while collecting alms in Oakkan. Other reports said the two had bumped into each other in the street.
‘The crowd of Buddhists hurled stones at a mosque damaging six windows and electricity meter boxes. The crowd destroyed the facades of 25 shops,’ the MRTV television station said in a bulletin late on Tuesday.
Koko Naing, 28, a Muslim resident of nearby Kyaw Boi Lay whose home had been destroyed, told Reuters that at least three different mobs had attacked his village from 3:30 pm on Tuesday and on into the night. He said things had been fine in the village until the trouble but soured quickly afterwards, with monks making anti-Muslim speeches in monasteries.
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