A Muslim man from Win Kite village looks from behind the fence which residents built to protect their village from mob attacks, May 2, 2013. REUTERS/Minzayar
Jared Ferrie
Reuters:
May 3, 2013
Three Muslim men
peered over a bamboo fence built recently to fortify their village in central
Myanmar. They gazed across dry rice paddies towards a nearby Buddhist
community, looking for rising dust, a sign of an approaching mob.
It was a false
alarm. But a day earlier, on Wednesday, about 100 Buddhists armed with sticks
had gathered outside the fence, threatening to burn the village and kill them,
said the villagers of Win Kite, about a two-hour drive from Myanmar's largest
city, Yangon.
Police foiled that
attack. But Muslims were taking no chances after four days of mob violence led
by Buddhist monks in Meikhtila in March killed 44 people, mostly Muslims, and
touched off a wave of unrest in central Myanmar that threatens to derail the
country's nascent economic and political reforms.
"We have a
plan to defend ourselves if they come and attack us," said Kin So, adding
that many in Win Kite had armed themselves with clubs and swords as a
precaution for when troops and police patrolling the area pull out.
The five-foot (1.5
meter) fence encircling Win Kite is a vivid illustration of divisions between
Myanmar's Muslims and majority Buddhists that are beginning to cause problems elsewhere
in Southeast Asia.
Indonesian police
said on Friday they had foiled a plan to attack Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta,
arresting two men late on Thursday and seizing explosives.
A spokesman told
reporters the suspects had planned the attack in protest at the treatment of
Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. At least 192 people, mostly Rohingya, were killed
last year in clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine State.
In April, eight
people died when Muslim and Buddhist refugees clashed at an Indonesian
immigration center.
On April 30, one
man was killed in riots in Oakkan and nearby villages just 100 km (60 miles)
north of Yangon, when a Muslim woman bumped into an 11-year-old novice monk,
who dropped his alms bowl, damaging it.
The authorities are
aware that such mundane incidents can spiral out of control in the present
environment. A district officer said a measure that stops crowds from gathering
had been imposed in Taikkyi, a town near Oakkan, as a precaution.
Presidential
spokesman Ye Htut said in a Facebook statement the authorities had averted
trouble in the city of Mandalay when three motorcyclists rode through a Muslim
neighborhood shouting that Buddhist monks had come to burn down their houses.
"Security
personnel went to the site immediately and explained that it was not
true," Ye Htut said. "They assured the people of security. An
investigation is going on to expose and detain these instigators."
ARRESTS
Yangon's deputy
police commissioner, Thet Lwin, told Reuters 18 people had been arrested in
connection with the Oakkan riots, including the woman who inadvertently started
them, charged with "deliberate and malicious acts" that insult
religion.
"According to
our practice, we need to send her for trial since she was involved in the root
cause of the incident," he said, adding that although she had bumped into
the monk by accident, it was up to the court to decide her fate.
In the village of
Win Kite, a 45-minute drive down dusty roads from Oakkan, 40 members of the
security forces guaranteed peace - for now.
On Wednesday,
police managed to push the mob back to Sa Phyu, a Buddhist village about a half
hour's walk away. There they calmed the crowd, which agreed not to attack the
Muslims, according to Deputy Commissioner Thet Lwin.
One man from Sa
Phyu, who would not give his name because he feared arrest, confirmed the
police had prevented the attack.
A Reuters
investigation found radical Buddhist monks had been actively involved in the
violence in Meikhtila in March.
People interviewed
in Sa Phyu denied any involvement with monks and said there had not been any
meetings or phone calls on Wednesday, adding some 700 Buddhists had gathered
spontaneously from various villages in the area
Myint Shwe and
fellow Muslims in Win Kite fear the mob will return and they remain virtual
prisoners beyond their bamboo fence.
"Now we have
police and military so it's safe," he said. "But when the security
forces go back, we don't know what's going to happen."
(Additional
reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Minzayar Oo in Myanmar and Kanupriya Kapoor in
Jakarta; Editing by Alan Raybould and Nick Macfie)
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