BBC News
May 12, 2017
 |
| Police fired warning shots to disperse the crowds in the Yangon neighbourhood (AFP) |
Police in Myanmar have issued arrest warrants for seven
Buddhist nationalists for inciting violence after a scuffle with local Muslims.
Dozens had stormed into Mingalar Taung Nyunt township in Yangon
looking for what they said were "illegal" Rohingya.
The ensuing confrontation left at least one person
injured.
The violence comes as hard-liners from the Buddhist
majority become increasingly strident in their opposition to the Muslim
minority.
There are an estimated one million Muslims in Myanmar
(formerly known as Burma) who self-identify as Rohingya.
Myanmar's government sees them as illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh - a common attitude among many Burmese. It denies them citizenship
and places extensive restrictions on their lives.
Who will help Myanmar's Rohingya? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38168917
Truth, lies and Aung San Suu Kyi: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38756601
UN to probe 'killings and rapes' of Rohingya: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39380041
According to local media, early on Wednesday Buddhist
monks led nationalists into the Muslim neighbourhood, claiming ethnic Muslim
Rohingya were there "illegally".
Police broke up the scuffles, firing warning shots to
disperse the crowd. Two of those for whom arrest warrants have been issued are
monks.
Incitement to commit violence carries a sentence of up to
two years in prison.
In recent months, hard-liners had held protests in Yangon
(formerly known as Rangoon), stopped Islamic religious ceremonies and most
recently forced two schools to close temporarily over accusations they were
illegally doubling up as mosques.
---------------------------
Taking on the monks? - Analysis by Jonah
Fisher, BBC News, Yangon
I've met one of the wanted monks before. U Thu Sitta was
part of a small group of nationalist hard-liners we found demonstrating outside
a Yangon port in February. A Malaysian ship was about to arrive bringing food
aid for the beleaguered Rohingya.
As the monks and their supporters stood chanting
anti-Rohingya slogans I asked him how protesting about giving food to needy
people fitted in with his Buddhist beliefs.
U Thu Sitta answered but he didn't like my questions
much. As the interview progressed he complained several times about my posture,
asking that I remove my hands from my hips, then my pockets.
Those gestures are considered offensive to monks and both
times I apologised and stopped immediately.
But many of his fellow demonstrators filmed our
discussion on their phones and that evening it went viral on social media.
The videos were viewed hundreds of thousands of times and
the comments underneath were overwhelmingly hostile. Many called for me to be
expelled from the country, my personal contact details were published and there
were even a few death threats.
The posts were shared by several leading figures
including prominent ministers from the old military-era government. As I
discovered over the ensuing weeks, the interview became my most widely seen
piece of "work" among Burmese audiences.
By calling for the arrest of U Thu Sitta and others the
Burmese government of Aung San Suu Kyi is for the first time showing a
willingness to take on the nationalist monks.
If my experience is anything to go by, the nationalists
and the monks will have plenty of vocal support.
The predominantly Buddhist country has a long history of
communal mistrust, which was allowed to simmer and was at times exploited,
under decades of military rule.
In March, the United Nations human rights council said it
would investigate alleged human rights abuses by
Myanmar's army against the Rohingya. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39380041
Some 70,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar into Bangladesh in
the last six months, and the UN has gathered accounts of gang rapes and mass
killings.