Police in western Myanmar on Friday opened fire in an attempt to quell religious tensions in a town dominated by the Rohingya Muslim minority group, a government official said. Police were said to have been deployed at more than a dozen villages in Rakhine state, along the Bay of Bengal, after houses were set on fire following a surge in sectarian unrest. “Police opened fire in Maungdaw in Rakhine state. There are no casualties,” the official said. Tensions have flared in Rakhine since 10 Muslims were killed by an angry Buddhist mob on Sunday.
The victims’ bus was surrounded by a crowd of hundreds of people enraged at the May 28 rape and murder of a Rakhine woman, allegedly by three other Muslim men, state media reported Tuesday. Buddhists make up some 89 percent of the population of Myanmar, with Muslims officially representing four percent. The United Nations describes the Rohingya as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. The violence threatens to overshadow reconciliation efforts since a series of dramatic political reforms following the end of almost half a century of military rule last year. An official from the presidential office said police were deployed in Maungdaw on Friday after about 300 people returning from mosques threw stones at a government office, police station and local businesses. “Now it is under control,” the official said, adding that there was also stone-throwing in the Rakhine state capital Sittwe. Police were also deployed in 14 Rakhine villages as houses were set on fire, he later said in comments posted online.
Abu Tahay, of the National Democratic Party for Development, which represents Rohingya, said there were unconfirmed reports that one or two people were killed by security forces in Maungdaw. AFP was unable to verify that information. The authorities this week warned against “anarchic acts” after the mob killings and an attack on a police station by an angry crowd in Sittwe. Religious clashes occur periodically in Myanmar, and Rakhine state — which has a large Muslim minority population including the stateless Rohingya — is a flashpoint for tensions. In February 2001, the then-ruling junta declared a curfew in the state capital Sittwe after clashes between Muslims and Buddhists.
In Myanmar’s main city Yangon, dozens of Muslims protested on Tuesday calling for justice over the recent killings. In neighbouring Bangladesh, which also has a large Rohingya population, officials said the Border Guard on Wednesday arrested one Rohingya man on charges of carrying illegal arms as he tried to cross into Myanmar.
The UN should be careful about telling that Rohingas are ethnic group of Myanmar.In fact ,As a great organization,The UN should come and investigate whether those so-called rohingas are in ethnic groups of Myanmar officially instead of shouting out Rohingas are ethnic group of Myanmar without investigating officially and exact facts.What I would like to suggest The UN is if you want to know about Rome,ask Romans.Just don’t listen and comfirm an uncertain fact about Rome by the words of others who are not Romans really living in Rome.If you want to know about Myanmar ,Just ask The Myanmars who are really living in Myanmar.Make an official investigating.
Thit Sinn,
I partially agree with you. The UN should be careful labelling different poeple with different ethnic names. As Homo Sapiens, all human beings are made up of the same basic ingredients: proteins, carbohydrates and fats with some minerals interpersed in the structures composed of those three basic ingredients. Ethnic groups are difficult to be comprehended by Homo Sapiens with highly advanced intellectual faculties. All Homo Sapiens are same in all their developable capabilities, provided similar opportunities. And thus, on the exoplanet earth, all Homo Sapiens MUST enjoy equal opportunities of life, liberty and justice, regardless of the amount of melanin pigment on their skin and their spatial and temporal locations.
All the best to all Homo Sapiens.
If I am a president of Myanmar, I will kill all muslin.
you are the fucking brainless man. don't saying like this again, ok
So Ur Not(Sithu)…I am one of from Myanmar Muslim,what u know about us and Buddhist government what doing on…They have not any kind of humanity,All are like more animal..Yes or No thing ur self..
The UN Agencies, everyone of u practically can understand how this rohingers are living in myanmar, if you have read above situ and thit sinn’s comments how much is the descriminatin with rohingers in myanmars, they even like to kill all this muslims. I don’t want to say anything to this situ because the world is being known how much she is good with her comment on muslims. And as i am a rohinger, i’ve already lived much part of my life under the oppressin of myanmar goverenment, local authorities and local buddist residences.
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