AFP

YANGON (AFP) –  Myanmar has sentenced more than 20 Buddhists to prison for their roles in religious riots in March, including a deadly attack on a Muslim boarding school, lawyers and police said Friday.

The convictions follow earlier concerns among rights groups that Muslims were bearing the brunt of the legal crackdown on suspects involved in the unrest which shook the central town of Meiktila.

The Buddhists were sentenced on Wednesday and Thursday on charges including murder, assault, theft, arson and inciting unrest, said a police official who did not want to be named.

According to state media, which did not specify the suspects’ religion, the sentences ranged from two years for minor offences such as theft to 10 years for murder, with some defendants handed several terms to be served separately.

Some of the charges related to the deaths of students at an Islamic school on the outskirts of Meiktila, according to Ba San, a lawyer who was at the court.

“We have to say that both Buddhists and Muslims have been sentenced if found guilty,” he told AFP.

More than a dozen Muslims have been convicted in relation to the violence, with a number receiving life imprisonment for murder.

In May seven Muslims were sentenced to between two and 28 years for their parts in the killing of a Buddhist monk during the unrest, which was apparently triggered by a quarrel in a Muslim-owned gold shop.

He says this follows as “night follows day” if legitimate grievances by the Rohingya community in Rakhine state aren’t dealt with.

Senator Carr has wrapped up a two-day visit to Myanmar where he has held talks with the government, opposition and community representatives in Naypyidaw.

Presenter: Karon Snowdon

Speaker: Bob Carr, Australia’s Foreign Minister
CARR: Well I put it to three or four ministers, to the Opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, I put it as well to the Speaker of the Parliament, Shwe Marn, They know that Australia is deeply concerned about the position of the Rohingya, and about what appears to be systemic discrimination directed against them. They acknowledge that more work needs to be done in Rakhine State, where the Rohingya live.
 
SNOWDON: Did you get a sense that the government isn’t prepared to confront the anti-Rohingya elements, especially within the community of Buddhist monks in the country?
 
CARR: I would say, I’m not in a position to be that specific, but I would say, after speaking to representatives of two political parties, representing the non-Rohingya population, if we can put it that way in Rakhine State, that the problems are deep seated. There is a very strong prejudice directed against these people, how one would measure that, I’m not sure, but certainly the representatives of these groups I spoke to appeared hostile to the notion of Rohingya enjoying full citizenship and the rights that go with it and I found this somewhat, somewhat depressing.
 
SNOWDON: Very briefly, did you meet the Rohingya community representatives?
 
CARR: Yes, I did.

Myanmar has sentenced two Buddhist men to seven years in prison for murders during religious violence in March that left dozens of people dead, a local official said.

The defendants were convicted after separate trials at the district court in Meiktila for their part in deadly rioting in the town, which mainly targeted Muslims and sparked waves of religious unrest across the country.

Meiktila district chairman of Tin Maung Soe said one man, aged 24, was sentenced on June 28, becoming the first Buddhist known to be sentenced for a serious offence over the rioting, which left at least 44 people dead.

“He was found at the scene where some people were killed during the unrest in Meiktila. That is why he was charged with murder,” he told AFP.

He said the second suspect, aged 21, was handed sentences of seven years and one year with hard labour – to be served concurrently – on Friday for his part in the killings.

By SAW YAN NAING

The United Nations has welcomed Burma’s decision to free dozens of child soldiers and called for all remaining children to be released from the country’s armed forces.

The demobilization of 42 child soldiers on Sunday from Burma’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, was “encouraging,” says Unicef’s representative in Rangoon, Bertrand Bainvel, but not the last step.

“We are happy for the children who were released and their families,” he told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. “We of course would like more and more children to benefit from such action. We want to see more and more children released from the ranks of the Tatmadaw in the future.”

There is a lack of official data on the number of remaining child soldiers in Burma, both in the government’s armed forces and rebel armed groups, but Bainvel estimates that about 520 children have been demobilized so far, as the country transitions from nearly half a century of military rule. Under the former junta, the Tatmadaw recruited children as young as 12 years old.

By MIN NAING THU

The sectarian conflict between Muslims and Buddhists, which started last year in western Burma’s Arakan State, is becoming increasingly complicated. In order to analyze why it is taking place and how it has spread to other cities and areas quickly, I want to go back to the beginning of the problem.

The inter-communal riots broke out following an alleged rape and killing of Thida Htwe, an Arakanese woman from Kyauknimaw Village in Arakan’s Ramree Township in late May 2012, by three Muslim youth. Many people have heard about this case but few know about its details. A closer study reveals however, that there is something unusual about the alleged crime and the way that information about it was spread.

The supposed rape took place in a place on Ramree Island, a very remote area off the Burmese coast, yet it was reported online in Facebook posts the very next day. The news spread rapidly on the social network and quickly inflamed lingering tensions between Muslims and Buddhists in Arakan State.

The victim’s photo and related instigation, as everybody knows, provoked a Buddhist mob attack on a bus of Muslim pilgrims visiting Taunggup a few days later. Then violence rapidly spread through different parts the state and beyond.

Similar incidents occurred in the region in the past, but never before did it spark large-scale inter-communal violence. Unlike in previous cases, an unpleasant photo of the victim was spread through print and online social media, stirring up strong emotions among Buddhist nationalist readers.

By Shenali Waduge

There is a common thread that runs through the histories of Buddhist countries; they have all been the victim at one time or the other of aggressive incursions made by people of Abrahamic faiths i.e. Christians or Muslims. This process has not ended. It still continues unabated and with greater ferocity. When prominence is given to “reconciliation” their incursions have yet to be apologized or compensated.

One thousand years ago Buddhist Asia ranged from Afghanistan to Japan. Today countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and South Korea are no longer identified as Buddhist. Several other traditional Theravada Buddhist countries such as Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka today find themselves besieged by forces more powerful and predatory than their slender resources can match. Their appeal to the call for Buddhist nationalism is a last resort to preserve their heritage, religion and country to ensure history is not repeated.

The situation in Myanmar (Burma) must be understood in such context. The latest issue of ‘Time’ Magazine (July 1, 2013) has got it all wrong when it accused the leading defenders of the Buddhist heritage of Burma as terrorist. Western colonial countries and their Islamic acolytes have never admired Buddhist heroes or those who resisted European or Islamic conquests of Buddhist lands.