RangonNewsDaily:: January . 25 .2014
The United Nations has confirmed that at least 48 Muslims appear to have
been killed when Buddhist mobs attacked a village in an isolated corner
of western Myanmar, violence that has been vehemently denied by the
government since it was first reported by The Associated Press just over
a week ago.
Presidential spokesman Ye Htut said he "strongly objects" to the U.N.
claims and called its information and figures "totally wrong."
A statement issued Friday by Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said
accounts of the events issued by news organizations and international
agencies were "based on unjustified conclusions drawing from unverified
information," and would lead to misunderstandings among ethnic
communities in the area.
It cautioned journalists and diplomats that "releasing unverified
information" was tantamount to interfering in Myanmar's internal
affairs.
The United States said it was "deeply disturbed" by the reports that at
least 40 people have been killed, and that a police officer has
disappeared. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf called Friday for
an immediate, independent investigation into the violence.
Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million people, has been grappling with sectarian violence since June 2012.
The incident in Du Chee Yar Tan, a village in northern Rakhine state,
appears to be the deadliest in a year, and would bring the total number
of mostly Muslims killed in violence nationwide to more than 280.
Another 250,000 people have fled their homes.
Northern Rakhine — home to 80 percent of the country's 1 million
long-persecuted Muslim Rohingya population — is off-limits to foreign
journalists and humanitarian aid workers have limited access, adding to
the difficulties of confirming details about the violence. Attacks began
Jan. 9 and peaked in the early hours of Jan. 14, according to
residents.
Buddhist Rakhine mobs, seeking retaliation for the abduction and killing
of a police officer by Rohingya villagers, entered under the cloak of
darkness with knives, sticks and guns and went on a killing spree,
residents in the area told the AP on condition of anonymity because they
feared reprisals. Many of the victims were women and children who were
hacked to death by the mobs, they said.
The foreign ministry statement made no mention of vigilante attacks on
Rohingya. It said police had two confrontations with mobs numbering 100
and 500 respectively, but caused no civilian injuries or deaths.
The humanitarian aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without
Borders, said it has treated 22 patients, some with wounds. It appealed
to the government for safe access to the affected people, many of whom
are still in hiding.
Though the village has been sealed off by security forces, Matthew Smith
of Fortify Rights, an independent human rights group, said some
residents have been able to return during the day and, as of Wednesday,
reported that some bodies were seen in abandoned homes.
He called for an
end to mass arrests, saying that in the hours that followed the
killings, riot police started rounding up all male Rohingya, including
children over the age of 10, in surrounding areas.
An investigation by the United Nations confirmed that a massacre had
taken place. The U.N. released a statement late Thursday saying there
were credible reports that at least 48 people had been killed in two
separate bouts of violence.
kolatt(PBDN)
RangonNewsDaily
RangonNewsDaily
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