Buddhists on rampage again:
Buddhist mob violence threatens new Myanmar image
Northwest Myanmar was tense on Monday 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 neighbouring 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 on Friday in the Rakhine State town of Maungdaw, but quickly spread to the capital Sittwe and nearby villages. The United Nations said on Monday it had started evacuating staff from the area after the government announced a state of emergency and dawn-to-dusk curfews.
Reuters reporters saw 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...
..."We have now ordered troops to protect the airport and the Rakhine (Buddhist) villages under attack in Sittwe," Zaw Htay, director of the President's Office, told Reuters. "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, while increasing curfews could threaten tourism and foreign investment - rewards for emerging from nearly half a century of army rule.
It might also force reformist President Thein Sein, a former general, to confront an issue that human rights groups have criticised 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 Myanmar's predominantly Buddhist majority.
"Vengeance and anarchy" could spread beyond Rakhine State and jeopardise the country's transition to democracy, Thein Sein warned in a hastily arranged televised address on Sunday.
About 100 Rohingyas [muslims] tried to flee the violence by boat into Bangladesh but were pushed back on Monday morning, said a Bangladesh border commander. "We have stepped up vigilance and will stop anyone trying to come across the border," he said.
That followed about five boatloads carrying about 200 Rohingyas who were pushed back out to sea on Sunday, said Anwar Hossain, a major with Bangladesh's border guard.
Rohingya [muslim] activists have long demanded recognition in Myanmar as an indigenous ethnic group with full citizenship by birthright, claiming a centuries-old lineage in Rakhine. But the government regards them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship.
Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992.
"INVADERS"
In recent days, they have been described as "invaders" or "terrorists" by some Burmese using their newfound freedom of expression and easier access to the Internet to vent their anger on social networking sites and express anti-Rohingya [muslim] sentiments that have simmered for decades...
...Rohingya [muslim] activists and residents accuse ethnic Rakhine [buddhist] of terrorising their communities. Witnesses in Sittwe said homes were torched on Sunday in at least four places.
By late Sunday, tension appeared to be spreading. State-run MRTV announced curfews in three other Rakhine [buddhist] towns, including Thandwe, the gateway to Myanmar's tourist beaches, and Kyaukphyu, where China is building a giant port complex.
Reuters saw residents of a mainly Rakhine [buddhist] village near Sittwe on Sunday set ablaze houses they said were Muslim-owned.
"We are burning Rohingya [muslims] houses because they live near our village and they gather at night and try to attack us," said an unidentified ethnic Rakhine [buddhist] man.
Planeloads of soldiers arrived in Sittwe on Saturday but residents said the security forces were ineffectual...
...An elderly Muslim man living with his family reported that Buddhist vigilantes armed with "swords and sticks" were roaming the streets on motorbikes.
"The security forces are helping them destroy Muslim houses," the man, a retired government official who also requested anonymity, said by telephone from his house near Sittwe airport.
A gang of Buddhists tried to burn his house down, but were dissuaded with help from a Buddhist neighbour, he said..
ABUSES, ONLINE ANGER
The Rohingya [muslims] are descended from South Asians and speak a dialect of Bengali. Most are stateless, recognised as citizens by neither Myanmar nor Bangladesh.
The U.N. refugee agency estimates there are about 800,000 of them in three districts of Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh. They are subject to many forms of "persecution, discrimination and exploitation", says the United Nations, including forced labour, restrictions on travel and marriage and limited access to education.
Decades of systematic persecution by the Myanmar authorities had made sectarian violence inevitable, said Elaine Pearson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.
"All those years of discrimination, abuses and neglect are bound to bubble up at some point, and that's what we are seeing now," she said.
Like their government, many Myanmar people refuse to recognise the term "Rohingya", referring to them as "Bengalis".
"The underlying perception of many Burmese is that Rohingya [muslims] are illegal migrant terrorists," said Pearson.
Sectarian hatred in towns and villages in Rakhine State is mirrored online. "They should shoot at least one (to) make them shut up," read a comment on Facebook under a photo purporting to show rioting Muslims.
Twitter users are railing against "Rohingya terrorists," one under the hashtag "#OneThingWeAllHate".
These sentiments were echoed by nationalistic blogs such as Won Thar Nu, which ran gruesome photos of what it said were Buddhist victims. It accused the Rohingya [Muslims] of staging a "foreign invasion".
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/06/11/myanmar-violence-idINDEE85A00Y20120611Buddhist walks away from torched muslim houses
Two Rohingya Muslims killed by crazy Buddhists
Buddhist terrorist incites hatred
Muslim village burned by Buddhist terrorists
Muslims peacefully protest against Buddhist terrorism
Muslims try to extinguish burning houses with dirt
Buddhist terrorist burns down Muslim houses
Muslims beaten to death by Buddhist terrorists