October 26, 2012
Communal Violence threatens Reforms in Myanmar
by AFP/Channel News Asia
SITTWE, Myanmar: At least 112 people have been killed and thousands of 
homes torched in communal violence in western Myanmar, casting a shadow over the reformist government’s attempts to remake the country’s international image.
People have fled their homes in droves following the latest clashes in Rakhine state, which was rocked by communal violence in June that split communities and left tens of thousands of mainly Muslim Rohingya living in camps.
“Up until this morning, 51 men and 61 women have died,” a spokesman for Rakhine state Win Myaing said, doubling an earlier toll. The dead were from both ethnic Rakhine and the Rohingya, he added, while scores more were wounded as violence engulfed four townships.
More than 200 people have now been killed in the state since June, according to the authorities, who have imposed emergency rule in the face of continued explosive tension in the region.
The United Nations responded to the bloodshed on Friday with a stark warning that Myanmar’s reforms are under threat from the continued unrest between ethnic Rakhine and the Rohingya. “The vigilante attacks, targeted threats and extremist rhetoric must be stopped,” a spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement released in Yangon.
“If this is not done… the reform and opening up process being currently pursued by the government is likely to be jeopardised.”
President Thein Sein has been widely praised for overseeing sweeping reforms in the former military-ruled nation, including the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the election of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to parliament.
But the Rakhine violence poses a stern challenge to the reform process. State media on Friday took the rare step of acknowledging the damage the resurgent violence is causing to the nation’s image at a pivotal moment in its transition from authoritarian rule.
The violence comes as the “international community is watching”, a statement signed by the President’s Office said in government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar.
Myanmar’s 800,000 Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh by the government and many Myanmar citizens — who call them “Bengalis”.
The latest violence, which prompted Myanmar’s main Islamic organisations to cancel celebrations for the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday that began on Friday, is seen as a serious challenge to the government.
Washington joined the United Nations to swiftly condemn the violence, with US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland urging both sides “to exercise restraint and immediately halt all attacks”.
Security has been stepped up in affected areas, including around the state’s main tourist attraction of Mrauk U and Kyaukpyu, where a major pipeline to transport Myanmar gas to China begins.
Tun Tun, an ethnic Rakhine resident in Mrauk U contacted by AFP from Yangon said the situation in his township had calmed on Friday. “The situation is calm now. We heard that more security forces were sent from Sittwe (the state capital) to Mrauk U,” he said, adding some shops have been closed since violence flared.
AFP journalists visiting Rakhine just before the renewed unrest saw thousands of Rohingya trapped behind barbed wire and armed guards in a ghetto in the centre of the capital.Tens of thousands more are housed in camps beyond the city limits as segregation between the two communities becomes more pronounced.
The stateless Rohingya, speaking a Bengali dialect similar to one in neighbouring Bangladesh, have long been considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities on the planet.
Bangladesh on Thursday mobilised extra patrols along its river border with Myanmar amid reports of dozens of boats carrying Rohingya refugees fleeing the clashes.
Dhaka drew criticism from the UN after it turned back boatloads of Rohingya, mainly women and children, after the June violence. But the nation said it would not accept any new refugees because it was already dealing with an estimated 300,000 Rohingya.
The UN’s refugee arm has said it fears large numbers of Rohingya will attempt the perilous sea journey south over the coming weeks to escape violence in Rakhine and the sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh.
- AFP/ck/al
Myanmar must come to grips with this issue. It is meaningless to take about reform and human rights when Burmese leadership and Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi are not prepared to seek solutions to this long standing issue. In the meantime, neighouring states like Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia have to bear the burden of housing and feeding these displaced people.
In this day and age, killing your own people is unacceptable. ASEAN and the United Nations, the United States, China, Japan, Australia, Europe and Russia cannot just stand back while the Rohingyas are being systematically decimated.–Din Merican
I think this issue is rather difficult to go away as the heart of the people from conficting groups are full of hatred. The Rohingas are unfortunate people to be born poor, stateless and having to suffer so much. But they are not the only group. Look at the African poor in Sudan, Ethiopia and many more places on earth. This is the law of karma at work, friends. To be born in these places is the karma of the people. If we understand the law of karma we don’t envy the corrupt politicians as they will pay back in their next life such as “the hell” that the Rohingyas are suffering now.
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Good to have you back. Aung San Suu Kyi is a big disappointment to me. She forgot that it was like when she was oppressed and denied her rights by the military junta.She practises double standards.–Din Merican
Ha Haaa, very ‘ interesting ‘ to note the law of karma at work in real life, reflecting situations in previous life ?
It sounds familiar about this philosophy of ” you reap what you sow ” , but curious though, what next life would be for Good people like monks & priests who lead austere lives, who need not work but depend on Charity of Society to feed them ?
Applying the same principle of the natural ‘ law ‘, can we as humans make a rough guess about the struggles of Existence in the animal kingdom, in which the higher species thrive on devouring the lower or weaker species for their ” survival ” – so it must be the perpertual Cycle of life, death and rebirth in a never ending saga, making ” Human ” lives meaningless…. ?
“This is the law of karma at work … ” — Tean Rean
The Old Goat Mahathir says for all the sins he committed if ‘karma’ means having to put up with all 72 virgins at one time, so be it.
O ya, just realised it : No meaning, no consequences…good is bad, bad is good…..hence ” God ” is negatived. It does not matter then, that one is the Preditor and the other Victim, and vice-versa…its a perpertual ” game of life & existence of struggles ” , at one time Up and the next one Down interchangeably ?
No wonder Guru Nanak, the great Guru, taught his followers & desciples : Must stop this unending & perpetual Cycle, and REVERSE it in One Cycle….he says possible…how to decipher this ?
The only cycle is in your head.
Karmic Law of Retribution requires Newtonian mechanics. I thought we are now in an Age of Einsteinian physics and the Uncertainty Principle of Quantum mechanics? 2 dimensional ideation of cause-effect, without seeing the obvious: Man is inherently Fallen.
I don’t know what’s your beef with Daw Aung San wrt this matter, Dato. She is in no position to dictate to the Junta (yes, it still is). The tragedy in Rakhine is a culmination of more than a century of divisiveness and political indecision/paralysis. Why is it, that this genocide attracting more attention, than the genocide in Darfur, Sudan or crimes against humanity in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Northern Nigeria, Uganda, Mali or Irian Jaya? A human life is sacrosanct – and no Law of Karma can take that away.