Calm returns to Mandalay amid simmering tensions
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Police in Mandalay said they had arrested another five people after sectarian violence, which required strict police patrol as tensions simmer in Myanmar's second-biggest city.
Two men were killed in the riot – a Buddhist and a Muslim.
Calm returned to Mandalay after the city was placed under curfew Thursday to quell violence that saw mobs wielding airguns, swords, rocks and other weapons go on a rampage, leaving one Buddhist and one Muslim dead.
It was the latest in a string of deadly religious clashes that have plagued the former junta run nation for two years, prompting warnings that the country’s fragile transition to democracy could be imperilled.
Violence broke out on Tuesday after an accusation of a rape of a Buddhist woman by two Muslim men from a local tea shop was spread on the Internet, prompting a crowd of hundreds to gather near the business, hurling stones and damaging property.
“The violence happened because of hate speech and misinformation spread online,” an official from the president’s office, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
He said the situation was now under control and the government so far had no specific plan to tackle inflammatory remarks posted on the Internet.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi blamed the authorities for the worsening violence and warned of the dangers of unsubstantiated reports.
“The authorities should properly handle those people who are spreading rumours. Without rule of law, more riots will come,” she told Radio Free Asia, according to remarks posted on the broadcaster’s website.
The clampdown followed two nights of violence starting on Tuesday when about 300 Buddhists converged on a tea shop owned by a Muslim man accused of raping a Buddhist woman.
Friends and relatives of the Buddhist man killed on Wednesday, a 36-year-old father of three, expressed their shock and outrage as they prepared to hold his funeral.
“He was like a brother to me,” said Htwe, who was with the dead man on the night of the attack.
He showed AFP injuries on his hand that he said were slash marks from a “sword” used by a group of Muslims to kill his friend.
“I will hold a grudge for the rest of my life,” he said of the attack.
A funeral for the dead Muslim man, a popular local bicycle shop owner, was held Thursday, hours after he was killed while on his way to attend early morning prayers.
Kari Hasan, the head of nearby Shaeshaung mosque, said the Muslim community had become a target of hate speech and had been let down by the authorities.
“If something happens they suddenly say it is because of Islam. With the new government we expected good things but we only get bad things,” he said.
The quasi-civilian government of President Thein Sein, which took office in 2011 following 49 years of repressive military rule, has struggled to contain outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence.
An imam at Mandalay’s largest mosque said that the five arrested on Friday were Muslims, held after police searched homes nearby and found ceremonial knives.
“Police definitely know these are used for ceremonial purposes,” said Ossaman, the imam. “They were not breaking any law.”
A police officer confirmed the arrests but refused to provide further details and asked that his name be withheld as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The two men who died in the violence were killed in separate incidents. Family and friends said they had taken no part in the riots.
Police said 14 people had been hurt in the rioting and four had been arrested earlier, on Wednesday.
Anti-Muslim violence is not new in Myanmar. The former junta imposed a curfew in Mandalay after riots in the city in 1997 following reports that a Muslim man had raped a Buddhist girl.
But outbreaks of violence have become more common under the reformist government, which lifted restrictions on freedom of speech, including access to the Internet, which had previously been tightly controlled by the military.
In a monthly radio address broadcast this week, Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein said the country was a “multiracial and religious nation” that could only maintain stability if people live “harmoniously”.
“For the reform to be successful, I would like to urge all to avoid instigation and behaviour that incite hatred among our fellow citizens,” he said, according to an official transcript.
