Racial hatred as policy in Myanmar
by BRIAN MCCARTAN
According to Human Rights Watch, in the anti-Muslim riots which took place between March 20-22, 2013, in Meiktila, in the Mandalay Region, in Myanmar, an estimated 828 buildings, the vast majority residences, were totally destroyed and at least 35 other buildings were partially destroyed. In the above picture, 442 likely residential buildings were destroyed or severely damaged. Compare the second picture with the pre-riots picture at the top to get an idea of the destruction. 42 people died, according to official statistics. PHOTOS/Huffington Post
Recent communal violence in Myanmar has underscored the risks that unresolved ethnic and religious issues represent to the long-term sustainability of recent political and economic reforms. While the former military regime is to blame for perpetuating ethnic and religious bigotry, many of those military officers-turned-politicians together with the democratic opposition now have an opportunity to reshape these crucial relations.
The violence that erupted in central Myanmar town of Meiktila on March 20 represented the first large-scale anti-Muslim riots outside of Rakhine State since 2001. Mosques, homes and shops were burnt and destroyed in an orgy of violence that left at least 42 people dead, according to official statistics. Scores more were seriously injured and thousands have been left homeless.
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Significantly, the recent violence in Meiktila and elsewhere in central Myanmar was aimed at the country’s broad Muslim community. Myanmar’s Muslims make up at least 4% of the population, representing over 2 million people. Many live in cities and towns but a significant number of Myanmar’s Muslims reside in villages across the rural countryside.
Discrimination and violence towards Muslims is not new to Myanmar, also known as Burma. Anti-Indian feelings began to grow under British rule as Buddhists felt they were losing out to Indians, many of whom were Muslims, brought in by the British for administrative purposes. Many others followed to set up businesses, work as laborers, or moved into extant Muslim villages to take up farming in the country.
Riots periodically broke out, most notably in 1930 when the return of striking Indian dockworkers put replacement Burman stevedores out of work. The rioting that ensued took on anti-Muslim overtones and spread to a number of areas across the country. Another riot in 1938 aimed at the British colonial government used violence against Muslims as a proxy. Fears of possible ethnic Burman reprisals in the wake of Japan’s invasion during World War II caused tens of thousands of Indians to flee to India.
The xenophobia behind the 1962 military coup that ushered in almost five decades of consecutive military rule served to reinforce negative perceptions of the Muslim community. Businesses were nationalized and hundreds of thousands of South Asians, most Muslims, were forced to flee to East Pakistan, now known as Bangladesh. Over time, the terms for Indian and Muslim populations in Myanmar became almost synonymous in the local vernacular.
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What is behind Burma’s wave of religious violence?
BBC
Ashin Wirathu (front) is urging Buddhists to boycott Muslim businesses
‘969 stickers’
“We Buddhist Burmese are too soft,” he told me. “We lack patriotic pride.
“They – the Muslims – are good at business, they control transport, construction. Now they are taking over our political parties. If this goes on, we will end up like Afghanistan or Indonesia.”
Ashin Wirathu has amassed a collection of what he says is “evidence” of the evils of the Muslim community.
He accuses Muslim men of repeatedly raping Buddhist women, of using their wealth to lure Buddhist women into marriage, then imprisoning them in the home.
Their population is growing too fast, he says. They are taking over.
He shows me a book with a lurid cover, depicting a Buddhist woman cowering in terror before a giant, salivating wolf. Then he offers a chilling allegory.
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I do not want to be involved in this. Maybe they don’t like the way I dress”
Muslim stall-holder
“When you leave a seed, from a tree, to grow in a pagoda, it seems so small at first. But you know you must cut it out, before it grows and destroys the building.”
He insists he played no role in the violence at Meiktila, although he was there. But he has not stopped campaigning.
He is urging Buddhists all over the country to boycott Muslim businesses.
So his followers have been distributing stickers printed with the number ‘969’, which symbolise elements of Buddhism, to shopkeepers around Mandalay.
I went with Kyi Kyi Ma, a local estate agent, around the main market, and she pointed out with pride how many stalls had the sticker, identifying them as Buddhist.
A solitary Muslim stall-holder, in a headscarf, sat without customers.
Speaking in a nervous whisper, she told me her customers had fallen dramatically since the trouble in Meiktila.
“I am a businesswoman. I do not want to be involved in this,” she said. “Maybe they don’t like the way I dress.”
Burma has a long history of communal mistrust, which was allowed to simmer, and was at times exploited, under military rule.
It is out in the open now, and spreading quickly in the new climate of freedom which was supposed to move the country towards a better, kinder future.
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