The violence in Meiktila has highlighted to me the dangers of the spread of religious incitement in Myanmar ခြန္ ဒီးယမ္ (ရွက္တတ္တဲ့ အရွက္ရွိေသးတဲ့ သူေတြအတြက္) ရွက္ဖို႕ေကာင္းလိုက္တာ.... >>> On my way to the township administrative office in Meiktila, at around 10.30pm on 19 August, my car was descended upon by a crowd of around 200 people who proceeded to punch and kick the windows and doors of the car while shouting abuse. Due to these serious security concerns, I had to abandon my proposed visit to an IDP camp containing around 1,600 Muslims who had been displaced following the March violence; a visit which had been planned well in advance. The fear that I felt during this incident, being left totally unprotected by the nearby police, gave me an insight into the fear residents would have felt when being chased down by violent mobs during the violence last March as police allegedly stood by as angry mobs beat, stabbed and burned to death some 43 people. I must highlight the obligation of the Government to act immediately to control violent mobs, running riot in communities, and protect all people regardless of their religion or ethnicity; something it seems they have not done during the violence in Meiktila. The Government also has an obligation to hold to account those who have failed to carry out this duty. The violence in Meiktila has highlighted to me the dangers of the spread of religious incitement in Myanmar, and the deadly environment that this can create, where a Buddhist monk and Muslim students were brutally killed. Although the Chief Minister declared that the trust had been restored, this does not reflect reality. The central and state government has also an obligation to urgently address these worrying trends. (Quintana)
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:48:49 +0000
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