[Myanmar] Despite Calls For Calm, Religious Clashes Continue In Lashio

[News_Editor]

Muslim-owned buildings in Lashio town burn after mobs ransacked them on Tuesday night. (Photo: Facebook/ Ye Htut)

RANGOON—Fresh clashes reportedly broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in Lashio, Shan State, on Wednesday afternoon, with several Muslim-owned shops destroyed, a local resident said. A journalist working for the Democratic Voice of Burma was also injured while covering the riots.

Earlier on Wednesday, officials claimed that order had been restored in the town after anti-Islamic violence first erupted on Tuesday night.

Inkura, a Buddhist monk in Lashio, told The Irrawaddy by phone that Muslims fought with Buddhists near the town’s Islamic quarter on Wednesday afternoon.

During these clashes, he said, several Buddhists were injured and two of his friends were killed. However, an official count of casualties was not yet available, and local authorities on Wednesday night said they could not confirm that anyone had been killed.

The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) said late on Wednesday afternoon that one of its reporters had been attacked during the unrest. “Journalist working for DVB were attacked and injured by mob while covering Lashio riots. Camera was taken and SIM card,†the news outlet said on its Twitter feed.

On Wednesday morning, officials claimed that order had been restored in the town after anti-Islamic violence first erupted the day before, reportedly destroying 15 Muslim-owned buildings, a mosque and an orphanage.

Buddhist mobs in Lashio, a town of around 150,000 people located close to the Chinese border, went on a rampage on Tuesday night following a dispute during which a supposedly Muslim man set a Buddhist woman on fire.

“One mosque, a Muslim orphanage and 15 Muslim-owned shops were torched in Lashio last night†Kyaw Khin, chief secretary of the All Myanmar Muslim Federation, told The Irrawaddy.

President Thein Sein’s spokesman Ye Htut said the mayhem occurred after a crowd surrounded the local police station to demand that the suspected perpetrator be handed over to them. When the police failed to do so, they attacked Muslim buildings in Lashio.

“People demanded that the police hand over the man to them. The police refused, so the mob attacked the mosque,†said a Buddhist monk Khema, who witnessed the scene.

Ye Htut said in a Facebook post that a man named Ne Win, 48, got into an argument with a 24-year-old petrol vendor, Aye Win, and then doused her with petrol and set her on fire.

“The police detained Ne Win and they found two methamphetamine tablets in his pocket. He was charged with causing severe injuries, and drug-related charges,†Ye Htut wrote.

Around noon on Wednesday, an official at the Lashio District Police Office told The Irrawaddy that a curfew had been imposed the night before and the town’s streets were quiet.

“We detained the man [Ne Win], and the victim was hospitalized with burn injuries. One mosque and a Muslim orphanage were torched,†he said, adding that the reasons for the unrest were “under investigation.â€

Lashio is the latest town to be hit by anti-Muslim violence in Burma. Large-scale clashes between Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims first broke out in west Burma’s Arakan State in June and October last year, killing 192 people and displacing 140,000.

In late March, inter-communal clashes erupted in Meikhtila town, Mandalay Division, where 44 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and more than 10,000 displaced. A total of 10 townships in central Burma were subsequently affected and remain under a state of emergency. On May 1, clashes between Muslims and Buddhists occurred in Okkan Township, located about 100 km north of Burma’s biggest city, Rangoon.

Additional reporting by Lawi Weng and Zarni Mann.

 

Source: Irrawaddy.org