Communal violence kills two Rohingya
Clashes last week between the Muslism Rohingya and security polices in Sittwe, capital of Arakan State in western Burma killed at least two Muslims.
At least seven people were also injured from the violence in which police also got involved. The two Muslim victims were allegedly killed by the police.
In Arakan State, western Burma, communal violence between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Arakanese, who are primarily Buddhists, erupted in 2012 and killed more than 190, mostly Rohingya, and displaced about 140,000.
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in western Burma who are denied for citizenship by the Burmese government. The government declared them illegal “Bengali” immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, despite the fact they had been living in Burma for decades.
Local residents and sources from humanitarian groups said that police opened fire on the violent mob, striking one person who later died at a hospital in Sittwe on Sunday. Another victim died at a displaced camp in Sittwe.
Win Myaing, a spokesperson for the Arakan State government, told Thailand-based The Irrawaddy magazine that the authorities have provided compensation to the victims’ families, offering them 200,000 kyat (US$205) each for those wounded and 400,000 kyat to families of the deceased.
Police opened fire against the mob on Friday last week after an aggressive group of Muslims gathered in front of a police station in the morning, asking police officials hand over the corpse of a fellow who had drowned the day prior.
Myanma Alin, a Burmese government-run newspaper, reported on Monday (Aug. 12) that eight people were arrested and currently being detained. The paper also reported that the mob attacked a police officer, after which police used “rubber bullets” to dissipate the mob.
The UN humanitarian agency, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), reported that the cause of death and the handling of the body erupted into a dispute between a group of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Rohingya community and the local police.
“This is believed to have led to violent confrontations between the police and IDPs, during which four IDPs sustained gunshot wounds and one was hit in the head by other IDPs. The IDPs burned a former border guard base near Ohn Taw Gyi. We understand that at least three individuals were subsequently arrested,” the UNCRC said in its statement on Tuesday.
The statement indicated that a team of UN humanitarian workers managed to gain temporary access and assess the situation on site. However, they later received reports that police had removed the road block using force, which resulted in further injuries.
On Monday, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana (pictured above; file image), was greeted by dozens of Buddhist Arakanese protesters in Sittwe who called the UN envoy a “one-sided Bengali lobbyist” and urged him to get out of Arakan State. Some protesters wore T-shirts reading: “Get Out.”
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TMP correspondent in Burma contributed to this report.