969 'behind sectarian violence'

A movement that uses 969 as a symbol of Buddhism and is described as Myanmar’s “neo-Nazi group” is under the microscope for its role in spreading anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

The government – under pressure to prove it is taking an even-handed approach to prevent more violence – has begun moving against the group.

A member of the Rakhine Youth Association, Ye Min Oo, was one of dozens detained in the wake of the anti-Muslim violence that left more than 40 dead in three days last month in the town of Meikhtila. He was charged at a Yangon court last Thursday with inciting violence.

On March 27 in Bago – another area hit by anti-Muslim violence – Aung Myat Thu, a member of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), was also arrested, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported.

RFA quoted another Rakhine Youth Association member, Pho Tharr, as saying that the authorities had questioned him about possible links between Ye Min Oo and Mandalay-based Buddhist monk U Wirathu, a leader of 969 known for his anti-Muslim views.

The 969 movement launched recently in Rakhine state, where the Muslim Rohingya minority was targeted in sectarian violence last year that left scores dead and saw some 100,000 Rohingya flee to refugee camps. Stickers bearing the number 969 are on sale in shops, and stuck on Buddhist-owned taxis, establishments and homes. 

A taxi driver in Yangon, who had a sticker inside his car, told The Straits Times: “This is the religious group for us to follow the Buddha’s words.”

But witnesses say it has become a symbol of a Buddhist supremacist movement aimed at Muslims that may be supported by powerful figures who see the unrest as a convenient way of driving home the point that only the army can keep order.

Several people with firsthand experience of the violence named 969 as a key factor in the unrest in interviews with The Straits Times.

An NLD member who owns a teashop in Bago, north of Yangon, and asked not to be named, witnessed events there. He said that on March 23 – the third day of the violence in Meikhtila – rumours of impending violence in Bago began to circulate, “fuelled by the mass distribution of 969 material – pamphlets calling on Buddhists to defend their religion, and 969 stickers, and a DVD of sermons by Ashin Wirathu”.

The next day, local NLD, Muslim and Buddhist leaders met to plan how to avert violence and protect the Muslim community. But the next night, there was no stopping some 40 monks – or at least people in monks’ robes – who arrived in town and began to “systematically destroy Muslim houses and Muslim shops using sledgehammers and sticks”.

The NLD member said: “I asked them, why are you doing this? They said, ‘These Muslims are not from Myanmar.’”

Britain-based academic and activist Maung Zarni was the first to warn about the 969 campaign. As Meikhtila burned, he wrote on March 24: “969 is Myanmar’s home- grown neo-Nazi group founded and led by extremist Buddhist monks with the avowed aim of defending Buddhist faith, Myanmar race and the Buddhist nation from Burmese Muslims.

“It is led most prominently by a saffron-robed pseudo-monk Mr Wirathu... who was jailed in 2003 for his direct involvement in the massacre of Muslim families and destruction of a mosque,” Dr Maung Zarni wrote.

Last week, U Wirathu signed a pledge to promote peace and reconciliation after a peace dialogue with multiple groups in Yangon. Just days later, he repeated his anti-Muslim messages in a BBC interview.

Last Friday, groups of Buddhists and Muslims in Yangon were distributing leaflets urging people not to allow fights to erupt between Buddhists and Muslims. The teashop owner from Bago who spoke to The Straits Times said 969 followers had come to his shop and asked to affix stickers outside it. He ordered his staff to refuse, and told them to point out to strangers the simple Buddhist altar on the wall.

“That is our Buddhism,” he said. “That is enough.”