2,000 suspects involved in communal and religious conflicts still at large
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ABOUT 2,000 suspects who were involved in communal and religious conflicts from 2012 to 2014 remain at large, according to the Myanmar Police Force.
The police, who said the suspects were fugitives, have been searching for them. More than 1,000 of the suspects have been involved in the communal conflict in Rakhine state, which occurred in February 2012.
Two years after the new government came to power, communal and religious conflicts have successively broken out, particularly in Rakhine, Sagaing, Mandalay, Yangon, Shan and Bago regions.
Several communal conflicts occurred in Rakhine. In 326 cases, charges were brought against 343 ethnic people and 973 Bengalis, of which 252 ethnic people and 1,148 Bengalis remain at large as fugitives.
There are still 61 cases in Rakhine under police investigation or in court. The police said they were investigating whether there were instigators behind the scenes.
“Trying to capture them”
“Under the administration of the regional police force, we are trying to capture the suspects in previous and ongoing conflicts,” said a police officer. “We will try to learn who is behind those arrested and what they are doing right now.”
However, the number of suspects at large is more than double the suspects arrested and no definite solution is being sought to quell or ease communal and religious conflicts.
In the Letpadaung conflict on March 3, 2012, only 12 suspects were arrested, while as many as 362 remain at large.
A year after the Meikhtila clashes took place, leaving 82 dead, 81 suspects remain at large in 49 cases.
After that, similar conflicts occurred in Bago and Yangon. Ninety-nine suspects in 18 cases are still on the run, while in the conflict in Lashio, 18 suspects in six cases are yet to be arrested.
According to the police, conflicts occur in Myanmar twice or thrice a year. The latest incident happened in Mandalay on July 1 this year, and the police are trying to capture the suspects involved in the riots.
