By
AP News
April
8, 2013
FORT
WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Members of one of the largest U.S. communities of Burma
immigrants held a demonstration Sunday to call attention to sectarian violence
targeting Muslims in the Southeast Asian nation.
About
100 former Burma residents who resettled in the Fort Wayne area gathered
outside the Allen County Courthouse to protest the violence in their homeland,
officially known as Myanmar.
Ex-refugee
AyeMin Zaphun tells WANE-TV the protest was called to spread awareness about
the Burma government and extremist Buddhists who are targeting Muslims.
Dozens
of people were killed last month when violence between Buddhists and minority
Muslims shook the central Burma city of Meikhtila. And a pre-dawn fire Tuesday
at a religious dormitory at a mosque complex killed 13 children. Authorities
blamed the fire on an electrical short circuit, but some Muslims in Burma have
said the fire was set intentionally.
“We
want the world to know that in Burma, innocent people are dying. They’re
burning children alive,” Zaphun said.
One
demonstrator held up a sign saying “Where is justice for them?” and showing
what appeared to be the ruins of the dormitory.
Zaphun
said some of the Fort Wayne immigrants will travel to New York City in the next
couple of weeks to hold protests there.
Fort
Wayne is home to more than 6,000 immigrants from Burma, making it one of the
largest U.S. communities of Burma immigrants. The city was a stop last
September during the U.S. tour of Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Many of the immigrants are Christian or Muslim.
Occasional isolated violence
involving Burma’s majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities has
occurred for decades, even under the authoritarian military governments that
ruled the country from 1962 to 2011.
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