BBC News – Burma acknowledges mass burnings in Rakhine unrest

Saturday, 27 October 2012. Burma’s president has acknowledged major destruction in the west of the country, scene of recent ethnic unrest.

“There have been incidents of whole villages and parts of the towns being burnt down in Rakhine state,” Thein Sein’s spokesman told the BBC.

He was speaking after Human Rights Watch released satellite pictures showing hundreds of buildings destroyed in the coastal town of Kyaukpyu alone.

It says the victims were mostly Muslim Rohingya, targeted by non-Muslims.

Presidential spokesman Zaw Htay told the BBC the government was tightening security in Rakhine state, which is also known as Arakan.

“If necessary, we will send more police and military troops in order to get back stability,” he added.

There is long-standing tension between ethnic Rakhine people, who make up the majority of the state’s population, and Muslims, many of whom are Rohingya and are stateless.

The Burmese authorities regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants and correspondents say there is widespread public hostility to them.

‘Bodies at sea’

The satellite pictures released by Human Right Watch, a US-based group, show Kyaukpyu district on 9 October, and then on 25 October.

On 9 October, hundreds of closely packed houses can be seen on the peninsula, as well as scores of houseboats along the northern shoreline.

But in the image taken on Thursday, few boats remain and the 35-acre district is almost entirely empty of houses.

HRW said many residents are thought to have fled by boat.

A local reporter who visited the site told the BBC’s Burmese service the area had been completely destroyed, with some buildings still smouldering.

In one district, with a population of some 3,000, only burnt out poles from the houses and charred stubs of trees were to be seen.

The government says the death toll from the attacks this week has reached 82, with a further 129 people injured, and that nearly 3,000 houses have been destroyed.

It was the first serious outburst of violence since June, when a state of emergency was declared in Rakhine.

At that time deadly clashes claimed dozens of lives and thousands of people were forced to flee their homes – many are yet to return.

Eid plans cancelled

HRW said it feared the death toll from the latest unrest could be much higher, based on witness reports and “the government’s well-documented history of underestimating figures that might lead to criticism of the state”.

Non-Muslims are reporting that this time they too were fired on by government forces during the unrest, and suffered many casualties.

The government has declared a curfew in the affected areas, but its response since the violence first broke out is being widely criticised as inadequate, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

On Friday six towns were hit by clashes and a night-time curfew is in place in several locations including Min Bya and Mrauk Oo where the latest spate of violence began.

It is unclear what prompted the latest clashes. The Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims, believed to be mainly Rohingya, blame each other for the violence.

In Bangladesh, border officials said they believed several boats with Rohingyas on board were waiting to try to cross the river from Burma. One official said 52 Rohingya had been sent back in the last few days.

Muslims throughout Burma have abandoned plans to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Adha because of the violence.

In August, Burma set up a commission to investigate the violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the west of the country.

Authorities earlier rejected a UN-led inquiry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20110150

BBC News – Burma Rakhine clashes death toll at 56 – state officials

Thursday, 25 October 2012. At least 56 people have been killed and hundreds of homes torched since Sunday, as clashes spread in Burma’s Rakhine state, officials say.

Several were killed overnight as violence erupted despite a night-time curfew in at least two towns.

The latest clashes are the first serious outburst of violence since June when a state of emergency was declared in Rakhine after 90 people were killed.

But tensions remained high between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims.

It is unclear what prompted the latest clashes. The Rakhine Buddhists and Muslims blame each other for the violence.

Clashes erupted in the Ratha Taung township late last night but this later spread to the Kyauk Taw township, where security forces opened fire, reports say.

Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing told BBC Burmese on Thursday that the total death toll since violence flared up again on Sunday had reached 56.

More than 1,000 houses have been torched since then and police have deployed reinforcements in the townships of Min Bya and Mrauk Oo, where curfews are now in effect.

It was the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslims in May that set off the initial unrest.

A mob later killed 10 Muslims in retaliation, although they were unconnected with the earlier incident, and the violence escalated after that.

In June, about 90 people were killed as clashes spread across the state.

The houses of both Buddhists and Muslims were burnt down and thousands of people fled. Muslims throughout Burma have abandoned plans to celebrate the festival of Eid al-Adha because of the violence.

There is long-standing tension between the ethnic Rakhine people, who make up the majority of the state’s population, and Muslims, many of whom are Rohingya. The Burmese authorities regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants and correspondents say there is widepsread public hostility to them.

In August Burma set up a commission to investigate the violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the west of the country.

Authorities earlier rejected a UN-led inquiry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20083287

BBC News – Muslim homes razed in Burma’s Rakhine state – report

Tuesday, 14 August 2012. The largest Muslim area in the Burmese city of Sittwe was razed to the ground in recent communal violence, a UK broadcaster has reported.

A team from the UK’s Channel 4 News gained access to Sittwe, which has been off limits to reporters for months.

They filmed an area once home to 10,000 that had been reduced to rubble.

Days of violence in Rakhine state began in late May when a Buddhist woman was raped and murdered by three Muslims. A mob later killed 10 Muslims.

Sectarian clashes spread across the state, with houses of both Buddhists and Muslims being burnt down.

Most Rohingya Muslims have been moved out of Sittwe into temporary camps.

The Burmese government declared a state of emergency following the outbreak of violence and has since prevented foreign media from visiting the region.

However, the Channel 4 News team filmed the area of Sittwe known as Narzi, which it reported was once home to an estimated 10,000.

Local Rakhine Buddhists were picking through the debris of the houses, which had once been the Rohingya area of the city.

One man told reporters that the Muslims had set fire to their own homes in an attempt to burn down the whole community.

The UNHCR has said that about 80,000 people have been displaced in and around the Sittwe and Maungdaw by the violence.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has said that forces sent to quash the unrest were reported to be targeting Muslims.

She has called for an independent investigation.

There is long-standing tension between Rakhine people, who are Buddhist and make up the majority of the state’s population, and Muslims.

Most of these Muslims identify themselves as Rohingya, a group that originated in part of Bengal, now called Bangladesh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19263926

BBC News – Burma: UN calls for inquiry over Rakhine violence

Saturday, 28 July 2012. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has called for an independent investigation following claims of abuses by security forces in Burma’s Rakhine state.

Ms Pillay said forces sent to quash violence in the northern state were reported to be targeting Muslims.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says about 80,000 people have been displaced following inter-communal violence.

The agency says most of those displaced are living in camps and more tents are being airlifted in to help them.

The latest violence in Rakhine state began in May when a Buddhist ethnic Rakhine woman was raped and murdered by three uslims.

On 3 June, an unidentified mob killed 10 Muslims.

Ms Pillay’s office says that since then at least 78 people have been killed in ensuing violence but unofficial estimates are higher.

“We have been receiving a stream of reports from independent sources alleging discriminatory and arbitrary responses by security forces, and even their instigation of and involvement in clashes,” Ms Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.

“Reports indicate that the initial swift response of the authorities to the communal violence may have turned into a crackdown targeting Muslims, in particular members of the Rohingya community.”

She welcomed a government decision to allow a UN envoy access to Rakhine state next week, but said it was “no substitute for a fully-fledged independent investigation”.

‘Scared to return’

The UNHCR says that about 80,000 people had been displaced in and around the towns of Sittwe and Maungdaw.

Spokesman Andrej Mahecic said that many were too scared to return home while others were being prevented from earning a living.

“Some displaced Muslims tell UNHCR staff they would also like to go home to resume work, but fear for their safety,” he said.

Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi recently called for laws to protect the rights of ethnic minority groups.

In her first statement in parliament, she said such laws were important for Burma to become a truly democratic nation of mutual respect.

Burma has undergone a series of political reforms initiated by the military-backed government.

But some parts of the country are still hit by conflict and unrest, most recently Rakhine state.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19025549

BBC News – Muslims in Burma’s Rakhine state ‘abused’ – Amnesty International

Friday, 20 July 2012. Muslims in Burma’s western Rakhine state have been subjected to attacks and arbitrary arrests in the weeks since communal violence erupted, Amnesty International says.

A state of emergency was declared in Rakhine in June after deadly clashes between Buddhists and Muslims.

Since then, hundreds of people have been detained in the areas where Muslim Rohingya people live, a spokesman said.

The government has dismissed the allegations as “groundless and biased”.

Win Myaing, a government spokesman for Rakhine state, told the Associated Press news agency that the claims are “totally opposite of what is happening on the ground”, adding that the region was calm.

But although communal violence has eased since the unrest in June, violations by the security forces appear to have increased, rights groups say.

‘Rohingyas beaten’

Amnesty accuses Burmese security forces as well as ethnic Rakhine Buddhist residents of assaults, unlawful killings of Muslims and the destruction of property.

“Most cases have meant targeted attacks on the minority Rohingya population and they were bearing the brunt of most of that communal violence in June and they continue to bear the lion’s share of the violations perpetrated by the state security forces,” Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki told the BBC’s Viv Marsh.

Chris Lewa, director of The Arakan Project, which focuses on Rohingyas in the region, also told our correspondent that hundreds of Rohingya Muslims had been arrested, with allegations that some had been beaten and even tortured.

“Shortly after the main violence… then we start seeing a new phase of, I would say, state-sanctioned abuses, where especially in Maung Daw… we heard on a daily basis about mass arrests of Rohingya,” Ms Lewa told the BBC.

Reports from the group’s network of sources in the area, mostly Rohingya, also said that authorities allowed Rakhine youth to assault Rohingyas in custody. The group also alleges that Burmese authorities took part in looting of shops and homes belonging to Rohingya.

The Burmese authorities denied similar allegations made by Amnesty International.

Some of the Rohingya Muslims arrested were held in connection with violence that erupted in Rakhine on 8 June, the day on which, observers say, violence was largely carried out by Rohingyas. The Arakan Project also says that some Rakhine, particularly those found with weapons, were arrested.

It is difficult to verify any of the information provided by such sources, as journalists cannot access the area.

Long-standing tension

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims flared after the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman in May, followed by an attack on a bus carrying Muslims.

Communal unrest continued in parts of Maung Daw as Muslims attacked Buddhist homes. Reprisal attacks then targeted Muslim homes and communities. The attacks left many dead and forced thousands of people on both sides to flee their homes.

There have been long-standing tensions between Rakhine people, who are Buddhist and make up the majority of the state’s population, and Muslims, many of whom are Rohingya.

Many Rakhine Buddhists have said that much of the violence in June was carried out against them by Rohingya groups.

Rohingyas say they have been forced to flee because of the violence.

Earlier this month, Burma’s President Thein Sein said the “solution” for the Rohingya was deportation or refugee camps.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18921960