Fault of Myanmar’s Muslim minority!

Mosque burnt down. 

Myanmar's Army regained control of a Meikhtila, ruined central city on Saturday after several days of clashes between Buddhists and minority Muslims that killed dozens of people, mainly muslims and left scores of homes and mosques in flames in the worst sectarian bloodshed to hit the Southeast Asian nation this year.

President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Meikhtila, which is about 550 km north of the main city of Yangon, on Friday afternoon, yesterday in a bid to stop the violence from spreading. Soldiers could be seen patrolling Meikhtila and taking up positions at intersections and banks as some residents, who had cowered in their homes for days since the riot began on Wednesday.

Myanmar Muslim.

Terrified Muslims, who make about 30 per cent of Meikhtila's 100,000 inhabitants, stayed off the streets yesterday as their shops and homes burned and some angry Buddhist residents and monks tried to stop firefighters from dousing the blazes. Riot police crisscrossed town seizing machetes and hammers from enraged Buddhist mobs. Hundreds of Muslim residents have fled their homes to take shelter at a sports stadium.

Buddhist trying to stop firefighter.

Mosque being burnt by buddhists.

The unrest comes amid heightened tensions between the two sides which have left hundreds of Muslims dead and more than a 100,000 others displaced since June 2012. On October 21, 2012, at least 11 Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar were killed after extremist Buddhists set fire to their houses in two Muslim villages in the city of Sittwe in the western Rakhine state. It also underscored the government's failure to reign in anti-Muslim sentiment in the predominantly Buddhist country, where even leading monks have staged anti-Muslim rallies that critics say have set the stage for further violence.

Myanmar’s government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels the minority of about 800,000 as “illegal” immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Muslims living along the coast of Rakhine State can be traced back to the eighth and ninth centuries when Arab traders settled in the area. Muslims and Buddhists have historically lived on both sides of the Naaf river, which marks the current border with Bangladesh. The British annexed the region after an 1824-26 conflict and encouraged migration from India, including that of labourers, merchants and administrators. Since independence in 1948, successive Burmese governments have considered this migration illegal. 

Without citizenship, Rohingya cannot legally leave the townships of Rakhine State and, since 1994, must request special permits (often available only through bribes) to marry, which restricts Rohingya couples to having two children, a limitation other ethnic groups do not face. Common-law couples are vulnerable to prosecution. The government includes the Rohingya in official family registries and gives them temporary registration cards. However, such documents do not mention place of birth and are not considered as evidence of birth in Myanmar. 

As a result of statelessness, suspicion, and deep-seated hatred, the Rohinyga continue to face persecution and are subject to discrimination through targeted restrictions (like family size) and requirements (unpaid forced labour for security forces). 

Aung San Suu Kyi at Rakhine State.

So divisive is their status in Myanmar that even pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains largely silent on their plight, out of fear of losing popular support, while the government of the reform-minded Burmese president could well face a major public backlash if it were unilaterally to grant them citizenship, experts warn.