Myanmar ethnic unity threatened by unrest
Source: Agencies |
June 12, 2012, Tuesday
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NORTHWEST Myanmar was tense yesterday after sectarian violence engulfed its biggest city on the weekend, with rival mobs of Muslims and Buddhists torching houses, police firing into the air and Muslims fleeing by boat to neighboring Bangladesh.
At least eight people were killed and many wounded, authorities say, in the worst communal violence since a reformist government replaced a junta last year and vowed to forge unity in one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries.
The fighting erupted last Friday in the Rakhine State town of Maungdaw, but quickly spread to the capital Sittwe and nearby villages.
The United Nations said yesterday it had started evacuating staff from the area after the government announced a state of emergency and dawn-to-dusk curfews.
Plumes of black smoke over parts of Sittwe, a port town of mainly wooden houses where Buddhists and Muslims have long lived in uneasy proximity. Some Buddhists were seen carrying bamboo stakes, machetes, sling-shots and other makeshift weapons after Muslims were seen setting alight houses.
"We have now ordered troops to protect the airport and the Rakhine villages under attack in Sittwe," Zaw Htay, director of the President's Office, said. "Arrangements are under way to impose a curfew in some other towns."
The unrest undermines the image of ethnic unity and stability that helped persuade the United States and Europe to suspend economic sanctions this year.
It might also force reformist President Thein Sein, a former general, to confront an issue that human rights groups have criticized for years: the plight of thousands of stateless Rohingya Muslims who live along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in abject conditions and are despised by many ethnic Rakhine, members of the predominantly Buddhist majority.
"Vengeance and anarchy" could spread beyond Rakhine State and jeopardize the country's transition to democracy, Thein Sein warned in a televised address on Sunday.
About 100 Rohingyas tried to flee the violence by boat into Bangladesh but were pushed back yesterday, said a Bangladesh border commander.
The western region has been tense for more than a week after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman blamed on Muslims and the reprisal killing by a Buddhist mob a week ago of 10 Muslims.
At least eight people were killed and many wounded, authorities say, in the worst communal violence since a reformist government replaced a junta last year and vowed to forge unity in one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries.
The fighting erupted last Friday in the Rakhine State town of Maungdaw, but quickly spread to the capital Sittwe and nearby villages.
The United Nations said yesterday it had started evacuating staff from the area after the government announced a state of emergency and dawn-to-dusk curfews.
Plumes of black smoke over parts of Sittwe, a port town of mainly wooden houses where Buddhists and Muslims have long lived in uneasy proximity. Some Buddhists were seen carrying bamboo stakes, machetes, sling-shots and other makeshift weapons after Muslims were seen setting alight houses.
"We have now ordered troops to protect the airport and the Rakhine villages under attack in Sittwe," Zaw Htay, director of the President's Office, said. "Arrangements are under way to impose a curfew in some other towns."
The unrest undermines the image of ethnic unity and stability that helped persuade the United States and Europe to suspend economic sanctions this year.
It might also force reformist President Thein Sein, a former general, to confront an issue that human rights groups have criticized for years: the plight of thousands of stateless Rohingya Muslims who live along Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in abject conditions and are despised by many ethnic Rakhine, members of the predominantly Buddhist majority.
"Vengeance and anarchy" could spread beyond Rakhine State and jeopardize the country's transition to democracy, Thein Sein warned in a televised address on Sunday.
About 100 Rohingyas tried to flee the violence by boat into Bangladesh but were pushed back yesterday, said a Bangladesh border commander.
The western region has been tense for more than a week after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman blamed on Muslims and the reprisal killing by a Buddhist mob a week ago of 10 Muslims.
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