Over 100 Houses Set Ablaze in Fresh Anti-Muslim Violence in Myanmar

According to residents of Okkan, 110km north of Yangon, a deadly anti-Muslim violence flared up on Tuesday, leading to the death of at least one person and several others injured after a mob of angry Buddhists overran two mosques and set fire to hundreds of homes.

Eye witness accounts indicates that the Buddhists, numbering about 400, went on a rampage through the town of Okkan, armed with bricks and sticks.

Two mosques were overrun and looted in the process, while over 100 Muslim homes were burned to the ground by the angry mob.

According to an old shopkeeper in Okkan, Khin Maung Than, “they came around 1pm and most of the people were from this town, not from outside. There were around 50 of them.”

Distressed villagers in Chauk Tal, an outlying village, were struggling to put out the blaze as several structures were still burning down as at Tuesday night with intense ferocity.

This incident is the latest anti-Muslim violence to shake Myanmar since late March.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch released a report in which they accused the Myanmar government , security forces, Buddhist monks and other politicians of running a campaign of ‘ethnic cleansing’ against the Rohingya muslims.

Report Unearths Fresh Evidence of Myanmar’s Implication in Rohingya Muslims’ Persecution

A Report released today by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organization in the United States, has unearthed fresh evidence that implicates Myanmar officials, community leaders and Buddhist Monks in the subjection of Myanmar’s minority Muslim group to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

According to the report entitled ‘All You Can Do is Pray’, interviews with more than 100 people on both sides and visits to all major refugee camps were carried out and the results indicate that the Burmese government engaged in a systematic campaign of violence and ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya (ethnic cleansing is a policy by one ethnic or religious group to remove another similar group from specific areas through violent and terrifying means).

It said that during the attacks by Buddhists, a soldier allegedly told a Rohingya man who pleaded for protection, ‘the only thing you can do is pray to save your lives’.

The report also uncovered evidence of mass-grave sites in Rakhine, accusing the security forces of trying to bury evidence of the crimes committed. It points out that over 125,000 ethnic Rohingya have been forcibly displayed since the waves of violence began in May last year, with satellite images showing thousands of destroyed land structures owned by mostly the Muslim Rohingya.

In an email, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch for Asia, Phil Robertson, had the following to say: “What this report reveals is that in October, just weeks before President Obama’s visit to Burma, the Burmese authorities were engaged in ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Arakan state. This should make it abundantly clear that the U.S. cannot just reply on fine words from Burma’s leaders but they need to insist on clear actions to hold accountable those involved with these crimes.”

The worst attack occurred on October 23, when about 70 Rohingya (including 28 children) were brutally maimed in Mrauk-U township, according to witnesses.

So far, the Myanmar government has turned a blind eye to the violence, assisted some of the attacks on the Rohingya, and even denied citizenship to those living in Rakhine state while claiming they are ‘illegal immigrants’ from Bangladesh, according to the report.

In response to the email of Human Rights Watch, the Myanmar government claimed that ‘the security forces and police handled conflicts between the two communities in accordance with the existing laws, rules and regulations, taking care of providing security in order to restore law and order and tranquility’.

Allegations of the use of excessive force by its police to handle the conflict in June ‘were unfounded’ and untrue information’, adding that authorities faced ’unfounded bias’ from both media within and outside the country.

While hostilities between Muslims and Buddhists have been closely monitored and reduced by the military rule over the last 5 decades, the coming of civilian rule which incites freedom of expression has given Buddhists the green light to express their rage against the Muslims openly.