Communities flee after Buddhist attacks mount

Reuters/Sit Kwin

The Muslims of Sit Kwin were always a small group who numbered no more than 100 of the village’s 2,000 people.

But as sectarian violence led by Buddhist mobs spreads across central Myanmar, they and many other Muslims are disappearing.

Their homes, shops and mosques destroyed, some end up in refugee camps or hide in the homes of friends or relatives. Dozens have been killed.

“We don’t know where they are,” says Aung Ko Myint, 24, a taxi-driver in Sit Kwin, where yesterday, Buddhists ransacked a store owned by one of the town’s last remaining Muslims. “He escaped this morning just before the mob got here.”

Since 42 people were killed in violence that erupted in Meikhtila town on March 20, unrest led by hardline Buddhists has spread to at least 10 other towns and villages in central Myanmar, with the latest incidents only a two-hour drive from the commercial capital, Yangon.

The crowds are fired up by anti-Muslim rhetoric, spread by telephone and social media networks such as Facebook, from monks preaching about a so-called “969 movement”.

The number is derived from Buddhism - the three numbers refer to various attributes of the Buddha, his teachings and the monkhood - but it has come to represent a radical form of anti-Islamic nationalism which urges Buddhists to boycott Muslim-run shops and services.

Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country, but about 5% of its 60mn people are Muslims. There are large Muslim communities in Yangon, Mandalay and towns across Myanmar’s heartland.

The unrest poses the biggest challenge to a reformist government that took office in 2011 after nearly half a century of military rule.

In a nationally televised speech on Thursday, President Thein Sein warned “political opportunists and religious extremists” against instigating further violence.

“I will not hesitate to use force as a last resort to protect the lives and safeguard the property of the general public,” he said.

Dusk-to-dawn curfews are in effect in many areas of Bago, the region where Sit Kwin lies, while four townships in central Myanmar are under a state of emergency imposed last week.

But the security forces are still battling against pockets of unrest, while state-run media reports 68 people have been arrested for unrest which made almost 13,000 people homeless.

The trouble in Sit Kwin began four days ago, when people riding 30 motorbikes drove through town urging villagers to expel Muslim residents, said witnesses. They then trashed a religious place and a row of Muslim shops and houses.

“They came with anger that was born from rumours,” said one man who declined to be identified.

Further south, police in Letpadan have stepped up patrols in the farming village of 22,000 people about 160km  from Yangon. Three monks led a 30-strong group towards a mosque yesterday.

Police dispersed the crowd, many of whom carried knives and staves, and briefly detained two people.

They were later released at the request of township officials, police said.

“I won’t let it happen again,” said police commander Phone Myint. “The president yesterday gave the police authority to control the situation.”

The abbot who led the protest, Khamainda, said he took to the streets after hearing rumours passed by other monks by telephone, about violence between Buddhists and Muslims in other towns.

 “There is no problem with the way they live. But they are the minority and we are the majority. And when the minority insults our religion we get concerned,” he said. “We will come out again if we get a chance.”

Letpadan villagers fear the tension will explode. “I’m sure they will come back and destroy the mosque,” says Aung San Kyaw, 35, a Muslim. “We’ve never experienced anything like this.”

Across the street, Hla Tan, a 67-year-old Buddhist, shares the fear. “We have lived peacefully for years. Nothing can happen between us unless outsiders come. But if they come, I know we can’t stop them,” he said.

North of Sit Kwin is the farming town of Minhla, which endured about three hours of violence on both Wednesday and Thursday.