(Direct translation of news articles from Shin Wirathu’s Blog this
week.)
Magwe City the capital of Magwe
Administrative Division in Middle Burma is on the brink of another Muslim riots
after the horrible news of a 50-year old Muslim Kalar man raping a very young Burmese
Buddhist girl multiple times.
The 9 year old girl and her mother were
working as the cleaners for the Muslim man’s dairy on the outskirts of Magwe Town
when the multiple child rapes were horribly committed. The rapes were in last
August but the frightened child did not tell anyone till she was physically ill
of the horrible injuries from repeated rapes and she had to visit a free-clinic
opened and managed by local Buddhist monks.
The doctors at the clinic discovered the
rape injuries and finally she told them of her horrible rapes by the Muslim
boss then living at 19th Street of Ywar-thit Ward in Magwe.
The monks called the police but the
local police who apparently had already taken a large sum of money as the bribe
from the town’s rich Muslims’ mosque did not take any action.
Only when the monks warned them that if
the law didn’t take any actions they would take care of themselves Buddhist
style the Magwe police finally took action and arrested the 50 year old Muslim
kalar for multiple child rapes.
Right now the child-rapist is held securely
in the Magwe Jail as the town Buddhists gathered as mobs in various places all
over town waiting to attack the Muslim properties and mosques while the town
security is heavily reinforced by at least two Security-Police (Lone-Htain)
battalions and armed local militia.
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| Buddhist Women Protest against Child-rapes by Muslims. |
First Muslim riots broke out in Oak-shit-kone
village in Sin Phyu Kyun township of Magwe division on February 16, 2006 before
spreading to Salin, Pwintphyu and Chauk townships within days. Two mosques were
destroyed, houses and shops damaged and several people were injured during the
unrest.
Forty one people have also been
arrested by the authorities in connection with more anti-Muslim riots in Chauk
town of Magwe division. Initially, 14 people were arrested, interrogated by
divisional police officers and sentenced to two years in Thayet prison after
riots erupted in the town two weeks ago.
(Following is the leaked cable from US
Embassy on the 2006 riots in Magwe.)
COMMUNAL RIOTS IN MAGWAY DIVISION
Date: 2006 February 22, 09:02 (Wednesday) Canonical ID:06RANGOON248_a
Original Classification: CONFIDENTIAL Current Classification: CONFIDENTIAL
B. 03 RANGOON 1361
Classified By: Poloff Dean Tidwell for
Reasons 1.4 (b, d)
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Communal rioting
erupted between Buddhist and Muslim communities in central Burma on February
16. Sources report that three people died and ten others sustained injuries as
Buddhist Burmans attacked Muslim and Indian shops, homes, and mosques. Authorities imposed a news blackout and
curfews in the region in an effort to prevent a spread to other regions, as happened
after similar communal riots in 2003.
END SUMMARY.
2. (C) Embassy sources corroborated
international media reports that rioting erupted between Buddhist and Muslim/Indian
communities in Magway Division in central Burma on February 16. Following rumors that Muslim men had allegedly
raped a Burman woman near Sinbyukyun town, ethnic Burmans attacked and torched
Muslim and ethnic Indian homes, shops, and mosques. The rioting and looting spread to other towns
on February 17 and 18, including Chauk, about 25 miles south of Bagan. According to media reports, local security forces
initially did not intervene, but as the violence spread authorities imposed a
strict curfew in several towns.
3. (C) An Embassy source said that
authorities arrested 17 people in Sinbyukyun, including four NLD members. The same source said that police arrested 55
persons in Chauk, most of whom were Muslim.
Unofficial sources claimed that three people died in the riots and
another 10 were injured.
ANOTHER VERSION
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| Buddhist monks confronting the riot-police. |
4. (C) According to a Muslim cleric contact in Rangoon, it was not a rape, but an
ethnic misunderstanding that sparked the riots.
A Muslim-operated taxi did not stop when the lone Burman woman passenger
asked to get off. The driver was reportedly
listening to music through earphones and did not hear her. When the vehicle did not stop, the woman
panicked, jumped off the moving vehicle, and broke her leg. Burman sources claimed, instead, that Muslim
youths had raped the local woman, the daughter of a prominent Buddhist abbot, and
dropped her along the roadside to die.
Assuming the latter, local ethnic Burman men commenced reprisal attacks
against Muslims and South Asians.
5. (C) COMMENT: In October 2003,
similar communal riots between Buddhist and Muslims in Kyaukse, Mandalay
Division rapidly spread to other parts of the country (reftels). The GOB reacted more quickly this time, but
the incident reveals underlying tense inter-ethnic relations in the
heartland. As a result of the regime's
tight control of information, rumormongering takes on added importance. Rumormongering combined with ethnic tensions makes
single incidents all the more combustible and likely to spread. END COMMENT.
VILLAROSA
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| Magwe Administrative Division of Burma. |
