Myanmar's Democracy Transition Marred by Anti-Muslim Rhetoric and Violence [TV]

[Zomi for Federalization and Democratization of Burma]

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Whenever there was a great upheaval in Burma, people wanted to know
who was responsible, who gave the order, who striggered the violence.
Everytime, nobody had the courage to come out and say, "I am
responsible. I gave the order." That means, it is the BBBFMTR USDP
Government leaders who were responsible for the murders, the rapes,
the tortures.
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REPORT AIR DATE: June 18, 2013

Myanmar's Democracy Transition Marred by Anti-Muslim Rhetoric and
Violence

SUMMARY
The Southeast Asian country of Myanmar has taken major steps to turn
from a military dictatorship to a fledgling democracy. But that
transition has also seen the rise of harrowing, deadly clashes between
Buddhists and Muslims. Special correspondent Kira Kay reports from
Myanmar.
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Transcript

GWEN IFILL: We turn now to the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar.

In recent years, the country has taken steps to turn itself from a
military dictatorship into a fledgling democracy. That included the
release of human rights leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
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Last month -- just last month, Myanmar's president became the first
leader from his country to visit the White House in 47 years. But the
transforming nation has been marred by a surge in violence against one
of its religious minorities.

NewsHour special correspondent Kira Kay reports.

KIRA KAY: Across the rice fields of central Myanmar, you can hear the
noise of hammers and saws, the rebuilding of an entire community.

CHO CHO, Myanmar: I was born and raised in this village. I got married
here. We have an attachment to this place. We cannot give it up.

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READ: In Further Firming of Relations, Myanmar President Visits White
House
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KIRA KAY: This Muslim enclave of farmers and cattle dealers sits on
the outskirts of Okkan town, where, on April 30, another flare-up of
increasingly frequent religious violence broke out.

It started here in town, when a Muslim woman bumped into a young
Buddhist monk in the crowded marketplace, causing an argument. Within
hours, angry Buddhists were attacking their Muslim neighbors and a mob
marched on the small enclave.

Village Chief Tin Win says 64 houses burned to the ground as residents
watched from the bushes. The centerpiece of the enclave, its mosque,
was badly damaged.

TIN WIN, Village Chief: I didn't think this could happen. We had lived
together peacefully. Muslims always participated in the activities of
the Buddhist community.

KIRA KAY: Myanmar is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country, known for its
shining temples. Monks are revered here and were a face of the
struggle for democracy and human rights during decades of autocratic
rule. Though only about five percent of Myanmar's population, Muslims
occupy a prominent place in the country's economic sphere, sometimes
fostering resentment.

But the military leadership kept a lid on religious tensions, says
Islamic leader Wunna Shwe.

WUNNA SHWE, Islamic Religious Affairs Council: The history of anti-
Muslim feelings is long, but it was always discreet. Now it has
erupted because of the transition to democracy.

KIRA KAY: In the last two years, Myanmar has undergone a profound
transition, as the reformist government has increased freedoms.
Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to Parliament after
decades of house arrest, and there is a freer flow of information.

WUNNA SHWE: These new freedoms have been exploited by a group of
people who want to create discord between the different religions.
These individuals use hate speech and provoke tensions around the
country. Meanwhile, the authorities have failed to enforce law and
order.

KIRA KAY: The surprising agents of a new anti-Muslim, pro-Buddhist
nationalism are a handful of prominent monks, like Wirathu.

WIRATHU, Buddhist Monk: We must prevent our country from becoming an
Islamic state.

KIRA KAY: Wirathu was arrested in 2003 for inciting religious
conflict, but was released in a 2012 amnesty. Now he has become the
public face of a movement called 969. The numbers refer to various
attributes of Buddha and the monkdom, and its brightly colored
stickers have flowered across Myanmar in recent months. 969 calls for
a boycott of Muslims, both economic and social.

WIRATHU: Muslim men marry Buddhist girls, but Muslim girls are taught
not to marry anyone of a different religion. Muslims never sell their
land or property to Buddhists and instead buy off Buddhists' houses.
In this way, they are expanding their control, and are dominating the
economy of our major cities.

KIRA KAY: 969's growth was fueled by events in Rakhine state, where,
last June, fighting broke out between Buddhists and the Muslim ethnic
group the Rohingya over the Muslim rape and murder of a Buddhist
woman.

In October came an organized effort to eradicate the Muslims, says
Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. Their investigation found that
local Buddhist leaders incited the attacks.

PHIL ROBERTSON, Human Rights Watch: There was, for instance, a
statewide meeting of Buddhist monks in Rakhine state that called
precisely for ethnic cleansing, for action against the Muslims who
they -- the Rakhine view as an existential threat against themselves.

What we can say is that the idea of impunity to attack Muslims is
apparently contagious. Seeing that it was done in Arakan state
indicated that, hey, they can get away with it in Arakan state. We can
get away with it here.

KIRA KAY: Wirathu uses the Rakhine upheaval as a rallying call.

WIRATHU: Anywhere Muslims are a majority, there is violence, like what
happened in Rakhine state. That is why our idea is to control the
Muslim population.

KIRA KAY: Wirathu says he condemns all violence, and there is no
evidence 969 members have plotted attacks against Muslims. But 969
propaganda was distributed in areas later hit by violence.

Today, much of the central Myanmar city of Meiktila looks like the
aftermath of a tornado or tsunami. In March, an argument in a gold
shop between a Buddhist customer and the Muslim owners sparked riots.
Cell phone video from the scene shows Buddhist crowds tearing the
building apart by hand.

That night, Muslims pulled a monk off a motorbike and set him on fire.
The Buddhist community's retaliation was immediate and overwhelming.
In a Muslim village outside town, we met survivors of the Meiktila
violence. All but one of them asked that we not reveal their identity.

MAN: While we were hiding, we were terrified, wondering, when I will
be killed?

KIRA KAY: This 21-year-old says he and 100 others fled to nearby
swampland after the Islamic school they were hiding in was attacked.

MAN: The police said they would save us and led us out in a line. But,
on the way out, the crowd attacked, shouting, don't come back, don't
set foot on this land, as they were killing us.

WOMAN: They hit my husband's head with an axe, and he collapsed. Then
the mob, including a monk and people from our village, threw him into
the fire, still alive. They did this right in front of my eyes.

WIN HTEIN, National League for Democracy: The crowd was there. And it
really is not a crowd. It's a mob. They were chanting these anti-
Muslim slogans.

KIRA KAY: Win Htein represents Meiktila in the country's parliament
and witnessed the attacks.

WIN HTEIN: When they learned that police were not taking action, they
ran across inside the line and dragged some young people and killed in
front of them. About 2,000 people were gathering, and they were
cheering.

KIRA KAY: They were cheering?

WIN HTEIN: When someone was killed, they would cheer.

KIRA KAY: Over the three days of violence, at least 50 people, mostly
Muslims, were burned alive or hacked to death; 18,000 were displaced;
12 of the town's 13 mosques were destroyed or badly damaged.

WIN HTEIN: It is devastation, not materially, mentally, because the
people now are so determined against Muslims coming to their own
places. Some people are privately telling me that, don't let them come
back again.

KIRA KAY: Even amidst the violence, there were glimmers of humanity.
Soe Nyund's 76-year-old father was too slow to escape the mob, but Soe
Nyund says the kindness of neighboring Buddhists spared his life.

SOE NYUND, Myanmar: We had a friendly and warm relationship with the
monks and also with our Buddhist neighbors. They were the ones that
hid me in the local temple.

KIRA KAY: Buddhist families suffered in Meiktila's violence, too,
primarily those from mixed neighborhoods. Several hundred remain
homeless and camped on the grounds of a monastery.

Gazing at her destroyed neighborhood just the wall, resident Tun Tun
Khaing longs for the way life used to be.

TUN TUN KHAING, Myanmar: Muslims ran small tea shops. Buddhists owned
betel nut stalls, and Muslims would buy from them.

KIRA KAY: How do you feel when you stay here in this camp and you look
across the field and see your burned house?

TUN TUN KHAING: It is hard to sleep, so I have to take sleeping pills.
It's worse because I also don't have a job. I am just trying to
survive.

KIRA KAY: Most startling in Meiktila was the prominence of 969
stickers. They are now everywhere, even on stalls standing beside
shuttered Muslim shops and destroyed mosques.

And just feet from ground zero of the violence, the gold shop, demand
is great for the 969 DVDs openly for sale, with Wirathu's portrait on
the cover.

Don't you take any responsibility that your words may be giving people
permission to act violently?

WIRATHU: What I have done is simply awaken people to what is going on
in our country. The violence was triggered by the rape case in Rakhine
and the murder of the Buddhist monk. My part is just to keep people on
guard.

PUNYA WONTHA, Buddhist Monk: These monks want public popularity and
donations. They do not think about how their actions could damage
democracy or cause people trouble.

KIRA KAY: Some monks, like Punya Wontha, are now speaking out and
trying to intervene. He believes these monks should be arrested.

PUNYA WONTHA: Back during the pro-democracy movement, the government
and the state-appointed council of monks worked together to imprison
monks who spoke out against the state. Now these monks are preaching,
but the authorities have failed to take action against them.

PHIL ROBERTSON: The fact of the matter is, the police are failing to
do their job. People who are committing violence or instigating
violence are not being held responsible. This needs to be addressed by
the government. Otherwise, the larger reform process could be at risk.

KIRA KAY: Back in Okkan, the scene of April's violence, the village
men take a break from rebuilding their houses to come together for
prayers in their still-damaged mosque. They are starting life over,
hoping the coexistence they enjoyed here for years can be restored.

GWEN IFILL: Kira Kay's story is part of our partnership with the
Bureau for International Reporting and their series “Fault Lines of
Faith.”

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3 comments

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Avatar
Ronin8317 • 11 hours ago

The '969' campaign started as a response to number '786' that
Muslims use in SE Asia to identify their shops as Muslim, a bit
similar to using the word 'Halal' or 'Kosher'. The number 786 is a
short form of Bismillah (“In the name of Allah” or “In the name of
God”), while it is not offensive, some non-Muslim (wrongly) sees it as
a provocation.

One important fact missing from the report : Myanmar fought a
brutal civil war against Rohingya Muslim separatists from 1947 to
1970. It was not pretty, and horrendous acts were committed from both
side. The rebellion cemented the idea in the mind of many that the
Rohingya are not Burmese, and is the root of the current tragedy. .
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mcsmithaus • 11 hours ago

Hahahahah! Angry Monks in Myanmar (Burma). Obviously not following
the teachings of their Buddha! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha LOL
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Juma John • 12 hours ago

Quite a masterpiece, well researched and candid......
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