(Burma Times) President U Thein Sein has arrived in Thandwe, as the town reels from days of violence and looting that has left at least four dead and seen as many as 70 homes razed.
Touching down in Sittwe on October 1, U Thein Sein paid a visit to the state capital of Sittwe, before traveling by helicopter to Mrauk U, Kyauktaw, and north to the annexed Rohingya-majority village of Maungdaw.
President U Thein Sein arrived in Thandwe shortly at about 3:30pm on Wednesday afternoon, with one local police official telling The Myanmar Times that the visit would extend overnight.
A local police officer said the death toll from the outbreak of violence had grown since initial reports about the stabbing death of 94-year-old Kaman Muslim woman Aye Kyi.
“The death toll rose to five — four men and a woman,” a local police officer told AFP, adding that the deaths happened on Tuesday in Thabyuchaing, about 12 miles north of Thandwe in Rakhine state. A Muslim village official gave the same death toll.
Graphic images, ostensibly showing the bodies of those killed in Thabyuchaing on Tuesday afternoon, have surfaced online.
It is the first visit the President has made to Rakhine State since the riots of June 2012 that claimed hundreds of lives and saw over 100,000 people displaced.
The president’s visit to Rakhine State has seen him meet with community leaders, as well as inspecting the progress of housing developments for those who lost their homes in last year’s violence.
State media reported U Thein Sein used his appearance in Maungdaw to call for people to “work together to ensure regional peace and stability, rule of law and development”.
The weekend’s unrest follows on from incidents that took place in Thandwe in late June, when at least three Muslim homes were gutted by fire and a local bus station hit by arson attacks after rumours circulated that a Rakhine woman had been raped by Muslim men.
Source Burma
Source link: http://burmatimes.net/u-thein-sein-touches-down-in-thandwe/