Curfew In Taraba After 20 Killed In Religious Violence

At least 20 people were killed in violent clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs in central Nigeria’s Taraba state on Friday, prompting a round-the-clock curfew, an aid worker said.

“We have recovered 20 bodies from the violence so far,” the source said Saturday, adding that the unrest had occurred in the town of Wukari, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the state capital Jalingo.

“We are still going round the town in search of more bodies,” he said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media about death tolls.

Authorities have imposed a curfew in the area following the bloody clashes, officials said.

Local residents said Friday’s violence erupted when the funeral procession of a traditional chief from the predominantly Christian Jukun ethnic group marched through a Muslim neighbourhood chanting slogans, which Muslims viewed as an act of provocation.

 
Tensions have been on the rise in the mostly Christian town of Wukari since February, when a dispute over the use of a football pitch between Muslim and Christian soccer teams set off sectarian riots that claimed several lives.

21 Dead as Violence Erupts In Xinjiang, West China

There have been reports of a violent clash involving police officers and local officials which resulted in the deaths of at least 21 people, with 15 others injured.

According to a statement released by the Xinjiang government, three local officials alerted their superiors after they discovered a group of ‘several suspicious individuals’ with knives hiding in one house on Tuesday afternoon.

Unfortunately, the occupants of the house took them hostage before the Police rushed to the scene. Violence erupted, resulting in the deaths of six ‘gang members’ with 15 others.

Eight of the ‘gang members’ were captured, while 15 others that died in the ensuing violence were either police officers or social workers, comprising of 10 Uighurs, three Han and two Mongolians of ethnic minority living in Xinjiang.

According to Hou Hanmin, a spokesperson for the Xinjiang government, who spoke to CNN, some of the knives recovered by the authorities were more than a meter long, and that the arrested individuals under interrogation claimed to have watched videos ‘from overseas’ that exhibited violence and acts of terrorism.

She also said, ‘‘then they made those large, lethal knives and wanted to use them for jihad. They had been training in their own house for several months. They were affected by extremism and hoped to commit themselves to jihad.’’

According to Tianshan Net, a government-owned online news site, the fighting has been described as a ‘violent terror incident’. The clash only shows how chaotic the Xinjiang violence is, and the poor response of the authorities to such events.

 
West China has suffered much unrest. The worst of the violence occurred in Urumqi, July 2009, between Uighurs (predominantly Muslim ethnic Turks) and Han Chinese that left over 200 people dead and 1,700 injured.  The latest clash occurred in Bachu County, east of Kashgar.

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.