Sectarian violence rages in Myanmar's northwest

(Reuters) - Homes burned, gunshots rang out and witnesses reported many dead as sectarian violence raged for a fifth day between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in northwest Myanmar on Tuesday, threatening the country's nascent democracy.

Security forces struggled to stem the worst communal violence since Myanmar's reformist government replaced an oppressive junta last year and vowed to forge unity in one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries.Hundreds of Rohingyas have been turned away by authorities in neighboring Bangladesh after attempting to flee the fighting in boats, say officials and witnesses.

The fighting in Sittwe, capital of Myanmar's Rakhine State, has prompting President Thein Sein to declare a state of emergency, impose dawn-to-dusk curfews and warn that "vengeance and anarchy" could jeopardize the country's fledgling transition to democracy after nearly 50 years of army rule.
"Almost all of the shops have closed. We only have a little bit to eat because the market is also closed," said a worker at a hotel in the centre of Sittwe.

Witnesses reported black smoke over Sittwe, a port town riven by tensions between Buddhists and Muslims. Some Buddhists have been seen carrying bamboo stakes, machetes and sling-shots. Muslims and Buddhists were seen setting houses on fire.
The United States and European Union urged calm to prevent a derailing of Myanmar's fragile reforms.

"Violence between each group is still continuing and is getting worse today in Sittwe. One Rakhine man died in the rioting this morning," said Aung Myat Kyaw, a member of the Rakhine state parliament.

He said about 5,000 people had taken refuge in Buddhist monasteries and schools in Sittwe.
Shwe Maung, a Muslim lower house representative in the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party for the town of Buthidaung, urged the army to intervene and accused police of allowing Buddhists to break the curfew and burn Muslim houses.
"Sittwe is like a war zone," he said, putting the death toll at 50 in the village of Narzi, not far from Sittwe.
Already, the unrest is undermining the image of ethnic unity and stability that helped persuade the United States and Europe to suspend economic sanctions this year.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN ADRIFT

The violence, which first erupted on Friday in the town of Maungdaw, could also force the government to confront a long-festering question of how to resolve the plight of thousands of stateless Rohingya Muslims on Myanmar's border with Bangladesh.
Many toil in abject poverty, often despised by ethnic Rakhine, members of Myanmar's Buddhist majority.

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres suspended its operations in the area on Tuesday, a day after the U.N. refugee agency pulled out its staff. More than 4,000 people driven from their homes are in six shelters, Myanmar state media said.

The official death toll remains eight people killed over several days, but witnesses said the number was substantially higher, although that this could not be independently confirmed.
Amid the violence, Bangladeshi paramilitaries, police and coastguard pushed back 12 wooden boats on Monday carrying 300 Rohingyas, mostly women and children, and witnesses said three more with some 150 people on board were drifting in waters close to the border.

Witnesses said they saw just 20 Rohingyas who had made it into Bangladesh, about half of whom were injured, but their whereabouts were not known. A Bangladeshi official on St Martin's island said the remaining boats had tried to reach the shore but were turned back.
"The boats moved around for a couple of days trying to land on this island but eventually were driven out of our water this morning," Mohammed Nurul Amin, head of a district council, told Reuters by telephone.

"Islanders are also keeping an eye out for any further crossing attempts," he said.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar's government regards the estimated 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas in the country as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992.

Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry said it supported Myanmar's efforts to restore order and said it was acting in the best interests of both countries by ensuring developments in Myanmar "do not have any trans-boundary spill-over". The countries are separated by a river flowing into the Bay of Bengal.
Rohingya activists have demanded recognition as a Myanmar ethnic group, claiming a centuries-old lineage to Rakhine.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday echoed Thein Sein's warning the unrest threatened to endanger democratic and economic reforms in the former Burma if it spiraled out of control."The situation in Rakhine state underscores the critical need for mutual respect among all ethnic and religious groups and for serious efforts to achieve national reconciliation," Clinton said in a statement.
"SPIRALLING OUT OF CONTROL"
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called for diplomats and foreign journalists to be given access to the area and criticized Thein Sein for handing power to security forces. It said troops had opened fire on Rohingyas in Rakhine State, also known by its former name Arakan.

"Deadly violence in Arakan State is spiraling out of control under the government's watch," the group's deputy Asia director, Elaine Pearson, said in a statement.

What sparked the rioting is not known, but it came as tension between Buddhists and Muslims simmered in the wake of reports of a gang rape and murder of a Buddhist woman, widely blamed on Muslims.
That led to the killing of 10 Muslims on June 3, when a Buddhist mob stopped a bus they were travelling on. The dead bus passengers had no connection to the murdered woman; state media says three Muslims are on trial for the woman's death.

Curfews are in place in three Myanmar towns, including Thandwe, the gateway to tourist beaches, and Kyaukphyu, where China is building a port complex.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin urged Chinese citizens and companies to boost safety precautions and said China "supports Myanmar's efforts in maintaining stability and ethnic harmony".


(Additional reporting by; Nurul Islam in Cox's Bazar, Andrew R.C. Marshall in Bangkok, Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Writing by Martin Petty and Jason Szep; Editing by Alan Raybould and Ed Lane)

12 Killing, torching and looting continue in Sittwe and Maungdaw

Akyab (Sittwe), Arakan State: Killing, torching houses and looting the properties of the Rohingyas have been continued in Sittwe and Maungdaw by police, Hluntin and a group of Rakhine racists, said a trader from Sittwe.


“Today at about 11:30 am, the villages of Moliek, Hoshai Para, Amla Para, and Kun Dan Ward of Sittwe were torched by a group of Rakhine racists with the cooperation of police and Hluntin. Police and Hluntin fired on to the villages while the Rakhines set on fire to the Rohingya villages.

Some of the houses were burnt down into ashes and some people were killed and wounded by the firing of police and Hluntin.

According to different sources, Nur Jahan (70), daughter of Kader, Thura Shwe (8), son of U Tin Shwe and his twin sister Ma Ni Ni, Daw Lun Lun (29), daughter of Nuru Uddin and her sister Sajida (23), Daw Hla Thein (53), daughter of U Maung Pru, Maung Tu Shay were killed. They all are from Padi Like village.

Besides, from Rohingya village, Moluvi, Noor Hussain (32), son of Saley Ahamed, Imam (religious leader), Jalal (56), son of U Maung Bra, Khalu Maung (a) Aye Tun, son of Md. Ali. They are one family members and belong to Saccay Pyin village. They whole family members of advocate U Kyaw Myint were also killed by police and Hluntin.

In addition, Majibur Rahaman (24) son of Abdur Rahaman was shot dead by police and Tasmin Juhar (28) son of Anwar, Sadek Hussain (18) son of Kader (student) and Younus (14) son of Abdur Rahaman were wounded. They all belong to Kun Dan Ward of Sittwe.”

Yesteday, 21 Rohingyas from Sittwe were wounded by police and sent to Sittwe General Hospital for medical treatment, but all were dead for critical wounded, said a villager.

Amla Para Madrassa, Mosque of Kyaung Gyi Lan, Mosque and Madrassa of Kun Dan Ward, Mosque of Moliek, Mosque of Buhar Para, Mosque of Santawli, Mosque of Hoshai Para village, Mosque of Rohingya Para and Mosque of Bowmay Para were destroyed by police, Hluntin and Rakhines. The Nazir Para market was also burnt down.

According to sources, two police personnel and eight Rakhines were killed by army while they were firing to Rohingya villages and torching houses. The reason is that an army was killed by firing of police accidentally.

After the accident, Rohingya villages are under the control of army. However, the dead bodies of Rohingyas and the villagers of Nazir Para are brought to Thee Chaung village which is situated nearby the ocean.

Rohingyas are now in panic-stricken as well as they have no food, no rations, no medical access, said a villager who didn’t mention his name.

Recently, more than 11 engine boats with over 500 Rohingyas including women and children were floating in the Naff River. They try to land on Bangladesh soil but the authorities of Bangladesh don’t allow them. They are suffering from crisis of food, water and medicine.

In Maungdaw, Md. Zinna (50), son of Kasim, Jamil Hassan (25), son of Deen Mohamed, Azizul Hassan (20), Younus, Zahir Ahamed, Nurul Alam and four others were taken away by police and kept in police station where they were not provided adequate food, said an elder from Maungdaw.

Yesterday, an older woman accompanied by her daughter was shot dead by army while they were crossing from one house to another at about 7:00 pm. They belong to Honsara village of Zaw Mathet village tract, Maungdaw Township.

One youth named Hussain Ahamed 25 son of Nazir Hussain of north Ngakura village of Maundaw township was stabbed to death by Rakhine villagers while returning from his father-in-law’s house at 5:00 pm. He was newly married.

In Maungdaw south, Natala villagers tried to arson attack to a Rohingya village named Aley Than Kyaw. But, they were caught by army on the way and sent to the Nasaka camp. The Natala villagers are from Senda Para village, said a villager

Md. Khan, Hasina, wife of Md. Ali and Nurul Islam were picked up by police at night. They all belong to Bomu Para.

Jamil Ahmed and his son Yasin and another two villagers were also picked up by police in the evening today. They belong to Ward No. 5.

Another five villagers from Ward No. 4 were picked up by police today evening and four other Rohingya villagers were also brought to Maundaw town from the southern side Maungdaw. They all were sent to Maundaw police station, but reason is unknown, sources said.

Two Rakhine youths dressed with army uniforms entered the Rohingya Bagguna village and looted ornaments from Ms. Morina Khatun, Ms. Laruni and Ms. Toyuba Khatun and ran way.

Rohingyas from Akyab stranded in Nafe River ( Photo News)

Around ten boats were arrived and stranded in Naf River where the Rohingyas have no foods and no water. Some Rohingya women and children need medical assistant. One pregnant was died while she delivering.  Three children also died on the boat.

Source

Ethnic violence in Myanmar seems 'neverending'

Sectarian violence has engulfed Myanmar's frontier state of Rakhine in recent days, with clashes between Buddhist and Muslim ethnic groups. Tension between the two groups is not new and there are few solutions in sight.

The cycle of revenge attacks between ethnic groups in the border state of Rakhine is posing a new challenge to Myanmar's reformist government, with the repercussions now rippling across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.
The latest surge in sectarian unrest began with the rape and murder of a Rakhine Buddhist woman, allegedly by three Muslims, late last month. Within days, the response had turned more brutal, with at least 10 Muslims killed when they were pulled off a bus in the Taungup township.
Last Friday, Muslims belonging to the Rohingya ethnic minority are alleged to have run amok in the town of Maung Taw, burning down hundreds of houses and killing seven people.
By Monday, many Rohingya were taking flight, with groups of men - apparently ethnic Rakhine Buddhists - roaming the streets of the state capital Sittwe carrying sticks and knives.
Announcing a state of emergency in the region on Sunday, President Thein Sein warned of the possible terrible outcome, with security forces drafted into the area.

Thein Sein has warned that the violence might spread

"The situation could deteriorate and could extend beyond Rakhine state if we are killing each other with such sectarianism, endless hatred, the desire for vengeance and anarchy," Thein Sein said.
Attacks 'well-planned and organized'
However, the president of the British-based Arakan Rohingya National Organization (ARNO), Nurul Islam, said he believed that the attacks had in part been orchestrated by the security forces themselves.
He claimed Muslim residents had been fired upon for breaking a curfew when they fled homes that Rakhine extremists had set alight.
"All of this is well planned and organized. The leading Rakhine political organization is behind this," he told Deutsche Welle.
Under Myanmar law, the Rohingya are denied citizenship, with many of the Buddhist majority in the state describing them as illegal immigrants. Many Rohingya travel between Myanmar and Bangladesh and the government says their presence in Myanmar does not date back to 1814 - a requirement that needs to be met under the country's citizenship laws. Bangladesh claims the Rohingya are from Myanmar.
On Monday, the Bangladeshi authorities turned away boats carrying more than 300 Rohingya away.
Meanwhile, about 100 Rohingyas demonstrated at the UN's regional headquarters in Thailand calling for the organization to intervene to prevent "genocide."
"There's a humanitarian crisis looming," said Islam. "All the Muslim shops have been looted and food including rice has been seized and carried away. People are already starving."
"I blame the central government, as well," he added. "They could send armed forces and control the situation within minutes. They want to ethnically cleanse Arakhan state, if they don't, why don't they control the situation?"
'A familiar pattern'
However, Hans-Bernd Zöllner, an expert on Myanmar at Hamburg University, was skeptical. "The government's power is a little bit overestimated," he said. "They don't have the power to do whatever they might like to do. This is something that applies in many border regions where ethnic problems appear, not only Rakhine."

Security forces have been sent in to the area

According to the UN, there are nearly 800,000 Rohingya living in Myanmar. Zöllner says the current crisis represents a fresh resurfacing of an old feud, in just one of a myriad of ethnic conflicts in the country. The latest events, he said, follow a typical pattern where sexual violence - or allegations of it - sparks ethnic conflict.
"There is a long tradition of Buddhist-Muslim tension in the country that goes back to the colonial period and the nationalist movement in the 1930s, when Muslim Indians were always scapegoated instead of the British because they were seen as weak. The British could not be attacked," said Zöllner. "From time to time, something will flare up."
"It seems to be a neverending story," he said. "It depends on so many factors. Unless the government in Myanmar can find a solution that satisfies the Rakhine people and come to terms with Bangladesh so that there might be some progress, there appears to be no solution in the pipeline."
Author: Richard Connor
Editor: Anne Thomas

Violence Escalates in Burma’s Rakhine State

BANGKOK - Northwest Burma’s Rakhine state remains tense after President Thein Sein dispatched troops to try to end religious and ethnic violence. The riots began after 10 ethnic-Rohingya Muslims were mobbed and murdered by ethnic Rakhines, in retaliation for the gang-rape of a Rakhine girl.

Local witnesses in villages in Burma’s western Rakhine state said fires continued to burn Monday, even after President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency and sent in troops to bring the riots under control.

The clashes that began on June 8 are the most severe in a string of violent attacks between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, the state’s largest minority group, and ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship in both Burma and Bangladesh.

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“In the morning after leaving the army from the Maungdaw today morning, the police and the riot police they and the Rakhine people are trying to burn to loot and to kill the Rohingya people," said Tin Soe is the editor of Kaladan Press Network, a Rohingya news agency, which has been reporting on the riots. "Ethnic problem or religious problem, we don’t know which one we can say.”

Both minority groups in the region claim to be under attack, but the Rohingya have a history of being a target of racism. Although many Rohingya communities have lived in Burma for decades, the government refuses to grant them citizenship - a position that has broad support among other Burmese nationals.

Even democracy leader and former political prisoner Ko Ko Gyi recently said he believed "so-called Rohingya" not to be one of the recognized Burmese ethnic groups.


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Nicholas Farelly, Burma analyst of Australia National University, says the Rohingya’s statelessness between Burma and Bangladesh is partially to blame for the conflict's escalation.

“The Rohingya, they fit somewhat awkwardly in that borderland between the two different political systems, they have nowhere to call home and, as a result from time to time, there are these episodes of conflict," said Farelly. "We have seen one of those very recently and it has in this case taken the form of Buddhist and Muslim mobs of varying sizes coming to blows.”

On Sunday, Thein Sein’s national address referenced what he called Burma’s “checkered” history of peaceful co-existence of among the country’s diverse ethnic groups. He condemned racial and religiously-based violence, which he said could jeopardize the country’s democratic reforms.

In Bangkok Monday, Maung Kyaw Nu of the Burmese Rohingya Association of Thailand asked the United Nations to intervene.

"Today, I am coming here to express, to hand over the letter to Mr. Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations," said Maung Kyaw Nu. "I would like his intervention, U.N. intervention to save my people who are killed. Genocide is there. I'm coming here to ask his help, intervention as well as the global civil society's help."

The U.S. embassy issued a statement urging all parties to stop violent attacks and the government to hold a transparent investigation.

Burma unrest: UN envoy visiting Rakhine state

UN Envoy at Sitwe Airport , Arakan

visiting the western Burmese state of Rakhine, hit by deadly communal clashes.

The area has seen clashes between Buddhists and Muslims, leaving 21 dead and hundreds of homes torched over the past week.

Vijay Nambiar, UN chief Ban Ki-moon's special adviser on Burma, arrived just two days after the UN announced that it was moving some staff out of the area.

Meanwhile, reports say that unrest continues in the state.

According to state media, 21 people have been killed since Friday, but one report puts the number of dead at 25.

Mr Nambiar is accompanied by Muslim religious leaders from Rangoon and Burma's Border Affairs Minister General Thein Htay, an AFP report said.

"We're here to observe and assess how we can continue to provide support to Rakhine," Ashok Nigam, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator told AFP.

On Monday, the UN released a statement saying it had decided "to temporarily relocate, on a voluntary basis, non-essential international and national" UN staff, affiliated organisations and their families.Refugees turned back


What sparked the latest violence?

The rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in Rakhine in May set off a chain of deadly sectarian clashes.

Why has a state of emergency been declared and what does it mean?

A state of emergency allows the introduction of martial law, which means the military can take over administrative control of the region.

Who are the Rohingyas?

The United Nations describes Rohingya as a persecuted religious and linguistic minority from western Burma. The Burmese government, on the other hand, says they are relatively recent migrants from the Indian sub-continent.

Is there a risk this might escalate further?

Analysts say that communal tensions with a religious and sectarian tinge have the potential to spark wider unrest, which will worry the government.

The unrest has led to refugees fleeing Burma being turned away by Bangladesh coast guards and border security.

On Tuesday, three boats carrying refugees were turned back, reports say. Officials say they had earlier turned away another 11 boats.

Reports on the number of Muslim Rohingya refugees fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh vary, but as many as 1,500 are said to have been turned back in recent days.

One man reportedly died in a hospital in Chittagong after he was allegedly shot by Burma forces while fleeing.

The UN Refugee Agency has appealed to Dhaka to keep its border open and provide humanitarian aid. However, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said it was not in the country's interest to accept new refugees.

An estimated 300,000 Rohingya refugees are already living in Bangladesh.State of emergency

The recent violence in Rakhine state flared after the murder of a Buddhist woman last month, followed by an attack on a bus carrying Muslims.

According to reports, it began on Friday in the town of Maungdaw, spreading to state capital Sittwe and neighbouring villages. President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency there late on Sunday night.

Rakhine state is named after the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority, but also has a sizeable Muslim population, including the Rohingyas.

The Rohingyas are a Muslim group and are stateless, as Burma considers them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Activists have criticised Burma's government for imposing a state of emergency, which paves the way for troops to take control of the western state.

The pressure group Human Rights Watch has accused the Burmese government of, in effect, handing over control of Rakhine state to the military, which it says has a history of brutality against both Buddhists and Muslims.

Activists have asked that journalists, aid workers and diplomats be allowed into the area.

A nominally civilian government was elected in Burma in 2010 and, in April this year, opposition politicians led by Aung San Suu Kyi entered Burma's parliament following historic by-elections.

However, the government is still dominated by the military and concerns over political repression and human rights abuses continue.