Religious ‘provocateurs’ driving Myanmar unrest
1 April 2013 6:00 AM IST
Two years after a repressive junta ceded power, Myanmar is grappling with a surge in religious extremism that experts trace to anti-Muslim ‘provocateurs’ including radical Buddhist monks.
At least 43 people have been killed while mosques and Muslim homes have been destroyed over the past fortnight in central Myanmar, in a wave of violence that witnesses say seems to have been well organised.
‘It is clear that there are some agents provocateurs with radical anti-Muslim agendas at work in the country, including influential Buddhist monks preaching intolerance and hatred of Muslims,’ said Jim Della-Giacoma, a Myanmar expert with the International Crisis Group think-tank.
‘Also, the systematic and methodical way in which Muslim neighbourhoods were razed to the ground is highly suggestive of some degree of advance planning by radical elements,’ he added.
Monks, once at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement and viewed with reverence in this devout Buddhist-majority nation have been linked to the unrest.
Some members of the clergy have been involved in the violence, while others are spearheading a move to shun shops owned by Muslims and only visit stores run by Buddhists, identified by stickers showing the number ‘969’, which has become a symbol of their campaign.
‘When the profit goes to the enemy's hand, our nationality, language and religion are all harmed,’ said Wirathu, a monk from Mandalay whose anti-Muslim remarks have come under recent scrutiny.
‘They will take girls with this money. They will force them to convert religion. All children born to them will be a danger to the country. They will destroy the language as well as the religion,’ he said in a speech put online.
More moderate voices among civil society activists and religious leaders are calling for the country to defuse violence that has cast a shadow over the Buddhist-majority nation's political reforms.
‘We need to fight this incitement by a group of bad people,’ said Thet Swe Win, a human rights activist who co-organised a recent ‘Pray for Myanmar’ peace event in Yangon.
‘We must prevent racial and religious disputes,’ he added.
At least 43 people have been killed while mosques and Muslim homes have been destroyed over the past fortnight in central Myanmar, in a wave of violence that witnesses say seems to have been well organised.
‘It is clear that there are some agents provocateurs with radical anti-Muslim agendas at work in the country, including influential Buddhist monks preaching intolerance and hatred of Muslims,’ said Jim Della-Giacoma, a Myanmar expert with the International Crisis Group think-tank.
‘Also, the systematic and methodical way in which Muslim neighbourhoods were razed to the ground is highly suggestive of some degree of advance planning by radical elements,’ he added.
Monks, once at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement and viewed with reverence in this devout Buddhist-majority nation have been linked to the unrest.
Some members of the clergy have been involved in the violence, while others are spearheading a move to shun shops owned by Muslims and only visit stores run by Buddhists, identified by stickers showing the number ‘969’, which has become a symbol of their campaign.
‘When the profit goes to the enemy's hand, our nationality, language and religion are all harmed,’ said Wirathu, a monk from Mandalay whose anti-Muslim remarks have come under recent scrutiny.
‘They will take girls with this money. They will force them to convert religion. All children born to them will be a danger to the country. They will destroy the language as well as the religion,’ he said in a speech put online.
More moderate voices among civil society activists and religious leaders are calling for the country to defuse violence that has cast a shadow over the Buddhist-majority nation's political reforms.
‘We need to fight this incitement by a group of bad people,’ said Thet Swe Win, a human rights activist who co-organised a recent ‘Pray for Myanmar’ peace event in Yangon.
‘We must prevent racial and religious disputes,’ he added.
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