News on the 4 October 2013:
YANGON — The authorities in Myanmar arrested 44 suspects for their alleged role in sectarian violence that wracked a coastal township in western Myanmar over the last week, state media reported. Five Muslims were killed and scores of homes set on fire when Buddhist mobs went on a rampage in Thandwe, a coastal township in Rakhine state.
The violence came even as President Thein Sein visited the region last week for the first time since in Rakhine in June 2012, killing hundreds of people and forcing more than 140,000 more to flee, the majority of them Muslim.
Few details were released about the latest arrests but a report broadcast on state television late yesterday (Oct 5) indicated members of both communities were arrested.
Officials in Rakhine state said last week that the chairman of a Rakhine political party and several of its members were among those detained. Today, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper put the total of houses burned down in Thandwe last week at 114 houses. It said three religious buildings — most likely mosques — were destroyed, and 482 people were left homeless. Thein Sein has been widely praised for overseeing an unprecedented political opening in the Southeast Asian nation since the army ceded power two years ago to a nominally civilian government led by retired military officers.
But rights groups also accuse his government of tolerating, or even abetting, what they describe as ethnic cleansing directed against Muslims in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
They say authorities have done little to crack down on religious intolerance and failed to bridge a divide that has left hundreds of thousands of Muslims marginalized, many of them confined by security forces in inadequately equipped camps after fleeing their homes. AP
THANDWE (Myanmar) — Even as President Thein Sein visited western Myanmar to urge an end to sectarian violence last week, security forces could not prevent Buddhist mobs from committing violence against minority Muslims, at times even unwittingly encouraging them.
That has raised questions about whether the government can quench hatred towards Muslims in largely Buddhist Myanmar, allegedly fuelled by radical monks, that has been blamed for the deaths of more than 240 people in the last 18 months.
Five Muslims were killed last Tuesday in this township in western Rakhine state. Yesterday, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said 114 houses were also burned down and 482 people left homeless. State-run media on Saturday night said 44 suspects had been arrested, though few details were given.
As soldiers patrolled the village of Thabyuchaing, Muslim residents said the authorities had opportunities to prevent the attacks, but did nothing. The police detained three suspects but released them almost immediately following threats of more violence, said Mr Myint Aung, 52. Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwi has denied charges that law enforcement or government troops failed to take necessary action.
Late on Saturday, in the town of Kyaunggon in the southern delta region, news spread that a 14-year-old girl had allegedly been raped by a Muslim man. The police and residents said Buddhist mobs destroyed a pair of Muslim homes there.
It was the first time sectarian unrest was reported in the area since the violence started in June last year. A poorly trained and ill-equipped police force — made up almost exclusively of Buddhists — is tasked with dealing with sectarian violence, the army only stepping in at the invitation of civilian authorities or during states of emergency.
From my point of view from the news above. Why must there be violence and war to happen? And why must there be raping scene always in some other news too?Isn’t this what GOD detest and against with..if they are pure human they don’t have to be some kind of wild animal til they have to do some kind of nuisance issue. Well i hope somebody can make them change that side of them or they themselves should change for the better. Well though human in this world tends to change to either between good or bad..well that’s for today topic! Thanks for reading!
The Globe 