DVB News:
April 25, 2013
A Muslim man was
sentenced to two years in prison in central Burma this week for “insulting”
religion, after he removed an extremist Buddhist “969” sticker from a shop,
according to local media.
Forty-two-year-old
Armin (aka Soe Lwin) from Kyaukgyi township in eastern Pegu division scraped
the nationalist symbol – which has been used to promote anti-Muslim propaganda
in Burma – from a local betel nut shop’s window on Saturday. Local authorities
sued him two days later, according to the Voice Daily newspaper.
After a one-day
trial, Judge Myint Kyaw from Kyaukgyi township court sentenced him to two years
imprisonment under a draconian section of Burma’s penal code, which bans
“deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any
class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”.
The notorious “969”
logos have been used as part of a targeted anti-Muslim campaign – led by the
self-proclaimed “Burmese bin Laden” or monk Wirathu – to spread Islamophobia
across Burma. The movement has been largely blamed for a wave of anti-Muslim
riots, which swept through the country in March.
The news comes the
same week that seven Muslims, suspected of murdering a Buddhist monk on the
first day of the unrest – are standing trial in a Meikhtila court, where they
could face the death penalty.
“They should be
punished with the death sentence. I would be satisfied with this,” a local monk
told Reuters.
Last month’s
violence erupted after a dispute in a Muslim-owned gold shop escalated,
culminating in the murder of a local monk – allegedly by 11 men. His death
prompted mobs of Buddhists to go on a seven-day rampage throughout central
Burma, torching mosques, homes and murdering dozens of Muslim civilians.
The UN’s Vijay
Nambiar described the violence as being carried out with “brutal efficiency”
and fuelled by “incendiary propaganda”. Wirathu is known to have held a number
of anti-Muslim sermons in nearby Mandalay in the weeks ahead of the violence in
Meikhtila.
The Burmese
authorities have been criticised for failing to stop the violence, which
follows two bouts of ethno-religious clashes between Buddhists and Rohingya
Muslims in western Burma last year. Earlier this week, video footage obtained
by the BBC shows police officers standing by and watching as a Buddhist mob
sets houses on fire in Meikhtila, while a Muslim man burns to death.
Although President
Thein Sein vowed to hold perpetrators – including “political opportunists and
religious extremists” – to account for the violence, questions remain over why
Wirathu and his legion of “969” followers have been allowed to continue the
practice of hate speech.
The nationalist
monk is currently touring Karen state in eastern Burma, where he has reportedly
delivered a series of inflammatory sermons, in which he described the
destruction of mosques as “sinless” because they are “buildings of the enemy”.
However, Wirathu has repeatedly denied that his “969” campaign played a role in
fuelling last month’s violence and insisted that his only agenda is to
“preserve” the Buddhist faith.
Three Muslims
involved in the gold shop brawl, which sparked the riots, were sentenced to 14
years in jail earlier this month. But so far no Buddhists have been prosecuted
for inciting violence, although a small number of residents have been charged
with “breaching” the state curfew, which carries a much lighter sentence.
The wave of
anti-Muslim unrest left 43 dead and displaced over 13,000 people, most of whom
are living in temporary shelters near Meikhtila. A number of locals report that
renewed threats of arson attacks are preventing them from returning home.
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