Deaths reported in Myanmar sectarian riots

03 Jul 2014

Two people have been killed during clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar's second-largest city of Mandalay, police said.

"There are two dead," a police officer, who did not want to be named, told AFP news agency by telephone on Thursday, without providing further details.

The reported deaths came a day after reports of five people being injured during secratarian clashes.

"One policeman, three Buddhists and one Muslim were injured by stones in the incident," Mandalay police said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"Two of the three injured Buddhist men are receiving treatment in Mandalay hospital and the rest got treatment as outpatients." the statement said.

A witness who lives in the mostly Muslim neighbourhood said a Buddhist mob had gathered late on Tuesday after rumours spread that the Muslim owner of a tea shop had raped a Buddhist woman.

No evidence of such an attack was immediately available.

Police stood between the groups and tried to drive the Buddhists away, the witness said.

"The police and the crowd fought each other and the crowd threw stones at the police," he said.

He said the Buddhist mob ransacked shops and burned vehicles before police managed to restore order, but that at 6 am local time Buddhists were still driving through the neighbourhood shouting at residents.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse the angry crowds that were facing off in the streets.

A local journalist told Al Jazeera that several Muslim shops were destroyed and that some people had been wounded in knife attacks. The main market in town remained closed on Wednesday.

Myanmar has been wracked by violence between the two communities since June 2012. More than 200 people have been killed and at least 140,000 displaced. Most of the victims have been Muslim.

Background:

I was speaking to a well educated and experienced Burmese uncle last week about this and this is what he said.

He is Gujarati but his forefathers have resided in Burma for generations. He said that basically when the economy of Burma was always in the hands of Hindus and Muslims (and not indigenous and ethnically Burmese) and Muslims put their roots in Burma (by marrying locally) having institutes (Darul-ulooms etc) while the Hindus primarily earned their money and sent it to India.

After partition (1947) many Hindus were offered Indian citizenship which they took while the Muslims remained in Burma, a few Muslims took Indian citizenship but vast majority didn’t because they had local ties.

The problem wasn’t the Burmese Muslims who had been there for generations. The problem was the ethnically Bangali Muslims who came to Burma and settled in Rakhine state. Originally, these Bangalees were brought into Burma by the British as farm labour but the immigration continued and increased many folds in teh 1960’s and 1970’s due to independence of Bangladesh.

These Bangalees morphed themselves into Rohingya people and demanded rights (and Burmese citizens). For decades they have been known for swindling, embezzlement, womanising, drug trade, prostitution and other crimes which the greater Burmese people are not used to.

Shaykh (Maulana) Marghoob Ahmed Lajpuri (RA) told me when I asked him about Burma that he went a few years ago and during shopping the young girl didn’t have change so Maulana wanted to get change but the Burmese girl said, “Father! Why would you go? Sit down while your daughter will get the change for you...”

So ethnically Burmese people have had tensions with Bangali migrants into Burma since 1960’s because they knew that these people aren’t Rohingya so since the 1970’s Burma has done an about-face and refused to recognise even the “genuine” Rohingya.

Due to the widespread vice and sins, Tableeghi Jamaat has been operating in this region for decades and because they go in Jamaats (due to sectarian tensions) this alarms the local (Non-Muslims) greatly until it finally came to blows!

The brother said that obviously I am at pain at the loss of life of Muslims but I should also acknowledge but the Bangali immigrants have been doing in my country for decades.

Furthermore, he said that Bangladesh must take some blame for closing its border and leaving its citizens to die in such a manner

Disclaimer: No idea if this is true or not...

www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/bangladesh-bans-...