Reuters
Men hold banners as they protest
in front of the US embassy in Bangkok on Wednesday. A group of Rohingyas
living in Thailand gathered outside the US embassy, demanding security
for Myanmar's Rohingya people, and called for international intervention
after clashes in Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Kyauktaw, Myanmar -
Fifty-six people were killed and nearly 2 000 homes destroyed in the
latest outbreak of ethnic violence in western Myanmar, a government
official said on Thursday.
The 25 men and 31 women were
reported dead in four Rakhine state townships in violence between the
Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities that flared up again on
Sunday, local government spokesperson Win Myaing said.
He said 1 900 homes had been
burned down in fresh conflict, while 60 men and four women were injured.
It was unclear how many of the victims were Rohingya people and how
many were Rakhine.
In June, ethnic violence in the
state left at least 90 people dead and destroyed more than 3 000 homes.
Tens of thousands of people remain in refugee camps.
The United States called for
Myanmar authorities to take immediate action to halt the violence. The
United Nations appealed for calm.
An Associated Press photographer
who travelled to Kyauktaw, one of the affected townships 45km north of
the Rakhine capital of Sittwe, said he saw 11 wounded people brought by
ambulance to the local 25-bed hospital, most with gunshot wounds.
One was
declared dead after arrival. All the victims being treated were
Rakhine, but that could reflect an inability or unwillingness of
Rohingya victims to be treated there.
A male volunteer at the hospital,
Min Oo, said by telephone that five bodies, including one of a woman,
had also been brought there. He said the injured persons were brought
by boat from Kyauktaw town 16km away, and taken from the jetty by the
ambulances.
An account by a Rakhine villager
in the area suggested great confusion and tension. The villager said
that when groups of Rakhine and the Rohingya had a confrontation,
government soldiers shot into a crowd of Rakhine, even though, according
to his claim, it had been dispersing. The villager would not give his
name for fear of violent reprisals.
There have been concerns in the
past that soldiers were failing to protect the Rohingya community, but
the Rakhine villager's account hints that the military may have been
defending the Rohingya in this case.
Curfews have been in place in some areas since June, and been extended to others due to the recent violence.
Tensions still simmer in part
because the government has failed to find any long-term solution to the
crisis other than segregating the two communities in some areas.
The United Nations called for calm Thursday in response to the new violence.
“The UN is gravely concerned about
reports of a resurgence of inter-communal conflict in several areas in
Rakhine State - which has resulted in deaths and has forced thousands of
people, including women and children, to flee their homes,” UN Resident
and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar Ashok Nigam said in a
statement.
Nigam said the United Nations was
appealing for “immediate and unconditional access to all communities in
accordance with humanitarian principles”.
The statement said large numbers
of people fleeing the new violence were headed for already overcrowded
refugee camps currently housing about 75 000 people previously made
homeless.
“Short term humanitarian support
and action towards long term solutions are urgently required to address
the root causes of the conflict,” said the statement.
In Washington, State Department
spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the US was deeply concerned about the
reports of increasing ethnic and sectarian violence in Rakhine state and
urged restraint.
The
unrest broke out days after the US held what it described as an
encouraging human rights dialogue with Myanmar - the latest sign of
diplomatic re-engagement with the former pariah state, which has also
seen the easing of sanctions to reward it for democratic reforms.
The unrest is some of the worst
reported in the region since June, after clashes were set off by the
alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in late
May.
The crisis in Myanmar's west goes
back decades and is rooted in a dispute over where the region's Muslim
inhabitants are from. Although many Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for
generations, they are widely denigrated as foreigners - intruders who
came from neighbouring Bangladesh to steal scarce land.
The UN estimates their number at
800 000. But the government does not count them as one of the country's
135 ethnic groups, and so - like neighbouring Bangladesh - denies them
citizenship. Human rights groups say racism also plays a role: Many
Rohingya, who speak a distinct Bengali dialect and resemble Muslim
Bangladeshis, have darker skin and are heavily discriminated against.
The conflict has proven to be a
major challenge for the government of President Thein Sein, which has
embarked on democratic reforms since a half century of military rule
ended in 2011.
It also poses a dilemma for the
opposition New Light of Myanmar party of Nobel peace laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi, which has been reluctant to go against the tide of popular
anti-Rohingya sentiment. Suu Kyi has been criticised by some Western
human rights advocates for failing to speak out strongly against what
they see as repression of the Rohingya.
Buddhist
monks have been spearheading anti-Rohingya protests, and on Thursday
staged their latest one in Yangon, the country's biggest and most
important city. More than 100 staged a peaceful protest at the historic
Sule Pagoda. - Sapa-AP
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