Monday, July 1, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Democratic Voice of Burma

Officials install curfew in Arakan state after mob targets Muslims

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 05:43 AM PDT

A curfew has been issued in Arakan state's Sandoway (Thandwe) after a Buddhist mob set fire to Muslim homes on Sunday evening, following the alleged sexual assault of a woman by two men who were rumoured to be Muslim.

On Sunday afternoon, the suspects and victim were being questioned at Sandoway’s police station when the mob assembled and called for the men to be handed over to the crowd. In response, the town's officials issued a decree banning the gathering of more than five people under article-188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Shortly after the order was announced, the mob set fire to several Muslim homes in the town. Officials then installed a curfew between 5pm and 5am under article-144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the attack’s wake.

Officials have yet to confirm the suspects' religion; however, a government spokesperson hinted that rumours, not facts, led to the crowds' assumption that the men were Muslims.

"Rumours of the woman being assaulted by an individual from another religion were spread in the town, leading to a mob of around 50 people gathering in front of the police station around 5pm," wrote Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut in a Facebook post published on Sunday evening.

"The police explained to the crowd that the culprits were still being investigated and urged them to disperse."

According to Sandoway Township Administrator Kyaw Soe Lwin, one house was destroyed, while four other homes were set alight in the melee.

While the two suspects who were allegedly involved in the assault were still in custody, none of the rioters behind Sunday's violence had been detained.

"We cannot take action against the [rioters] unless someone files a report, and there was no witness," said Kyaw Soe Lwin. "Even if there was, we cannot arrest people without solid information."

Arakan state spokesperson Win Myaing said acts of mob violence were unlawful.

"It is necessary to follow procedures in accordance with the law when a crime takes place and give it some time," said Win Myaing."It is inappropriate to make demands and act unlawfully with a mob."

A Muslim resident in Sandoway said she felt helpless, as the police failed to prevent the mob from destroying homes yesterday.

"We are afraid to file reports as the police were blatantly ignoring the attacks – they were patrolling in the town as the mob was burning homes – they didn't do anything to stop them," said the Muslim resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

However, National League for Democracy's Sandoway township chairman Win Naing said he believed the incident was orchestrated.

"We heard rumours since about six days ago that there was going to be a sexual assault against a [Buddhist woman] by one or two men from another religion – and then it actually happened," said Win Naing.

"Given that the riot spread immediately, it must have been orchestrated."

In May 2012, the alleged rape and murder of an Arakanese woman by three Muslim men led to a revenge attack targeting 10 Islamic pilgrims, who were beaten to death by a Buddhist mob in Arakan state's Taunggup.

Following the massacre, rioting kicked off days later in Arakan state pitting Buddhist Arakanese against Muslim Rohingya. Another round of rioting erupted the following October, which has inflamed sectarian tensions across the country.

Following multiple episodes of anti-Muslim rioting that has spread from Burma's southwest coast to the Shan plateau, hundreds of people have been killed and more than 150,000 people have been displaced across the country.

Monks and misogyny

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 05:30 AM PDT

"Our Buddhist women are not intelligent enough to protect themselves," a religious leader declared last week in defence of a controversial law that would effectively ban interfaith marriages in Burma.

The draft law, which garnered the support of an all-male convention of 1,500 senior monks in Rangoon on Thursday, has exposed a poisonous mix of structural racism and misogyny at the heart of Theravada Buddhism in Burma.

The legislation, if passed, would require Buddhist women to obtain permission from both her family and local authorities before marrying a man of a different faith. This provision was originally targeted exclusively at Muslim men, but later revised in a bid to be "more balanced". This "balance" of course only sought to redress its distinctly anti-Muslim agenda, rather than the inherent sexism that underpins it.

In part, this reflects a dogmatic and patriarchal interpretation of Theravada Buddhism in Burma that seems to indoctrinate the subordination of women. Nuns – who were notably absent from last week's convention – make up roughly one in six of the Buddhist clergy in Burma. But they are not afforded the same virtues as their male counterparts and it is widely believed that women cannot attain enlightenment. Women are subsequently banned from visiting the "holiest" parts of religious monuments.

Nuns cannot be fully ordained, because the ceremony requires at least five other fully ordained nuns to complete, and this community – known as the Bhikkhuni Sangha in Theravada Buddhism — died out centuries ago. Despite attempts to resuscitate the practice in other Theravada countries by using fully ordained nuns from the Mahayana Buddhist tradition to perform the ordinations, it has been met with hostility in most conservative circles and is not recognised in Burma.

This means that nuns are formally excluded from the Burmese Sangha – or monastic community – and are not allowed to deliver sermons or participate in high-level religious debates. In 2005, a nun was arrested and jailed by the military junta for returning to Burma after becoming fully "ordained" as a nun in Sri Lanka.

After being forced to "unconditionally" apologise for her actions, she was promptly deported back to Sri Lanka. In her evocative account of life as a nun in Burma, she recalls being forced to bow down to novice monks as young as five, even if they had been "in robes for less than a day". In other words, Burmese nuns are considered spiritually and intellectually inferior to monks of any age, experience or education.

"Patriarchal structures are endemic throughout Burma's states and provinces."

In the context of the Sangha — which carries enormous moral and political weight in Burmese society – it means that women's voices are marginalised, if not completely ignored. Monks are less likely to take an interest in social issues that affect women, such as sexual and reproductive rights or marital autonomy. Conversely, both the state-backed Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee and prominent supporters of the 2007 anti-government "Saffron Revolution" have played an increasingly vocal role in supporting the interfaith marriage ban.

It is perhaps unsurprising, albeit ironic, that both the Burmese military and the monkhood – two male-dominated and deeply hierarchical institutions – would embrace a shared platform for misogyny. In fact, when monks claim to be “protecting” Buddhist women from their own choices, it reeks eerily of the same condescending paternalism and machismo employed by the military regime to keep the pro-democracy movement in check.

There is an ongoing scholarly debate about whether Theravada Buddhism is intrinsically sexist or has come to internalise a wider culture of gender bias. In many ways this echoes the same parochial and myopic arguments that have contaminated western political discourse for many years – whether it's a question of same-sex marriage, access to safe abortion or the ordination of female bishops.

But certainly the draft law highlights the social, political and cultural ostracism of women in Burma, entrenched by nearly five decades of military rule. Burma is one of only two ASEAN countries, where domestic violence is still legal – despite having one of the highest recorded rates in the region. Marital rape is not considered a crime; while abortion is illegal in all circumstances except to save a woman's life and botched procedures are a leading contributor to Burma's cataclysmic maternal death rate.

Despite some commendable efforts by Aung San Suu Kyi to include more women in the 2012 by-elections, they still hold a tiny 5.7 percent of seats in the lower house of parliament, and an abysmal 1.8 percent in the upper house. (This should worry anyone, who fears the draft law might live to see the florescent lights of parliament.) Section 352 of the 2008 constitution even sanctions professional discrimination on the basis of gender.as long as it is for "positions that are suitable for men only".

Decades of brutal civil wars have taught Burma's armed forces to rape and pillage with impunity. This violence, targeting Christians, Muslims and Buddhists alike, has sent a clear message that women's bodies are collateral damage, if not instruments of war. The ethnic peace processes have been equally marred by a systematic exclusion of female voices – an absence which risks fuelling further gender based violence down the road.

Indeed patriarchal structures are endemic throughout Burma's states and provinces. The Lokaniti or "Guide to Life", a 14th century Burmese text, which outlines a woman's role as domesticated and servile, still carries significant influence among its majority Buddhist population. Luckily, it has not stopped women from speaking out against the monks' proposal.

But the support it has garnered from the monkhood, and the reluctance of a male-dominated Buddhist government to condemn it, remains deeply troubling. It certainly illustrates the need for a strong, organised and vocal feminist movement that cuts across Burma’s religious and secular spheres. In the meanwhile, anyone threatening to strip votes from politicians who oppose the ban would do well to remember that 50.3% of Burma’s electorate are women.

ASEAN officials address anti-Muslim violence in Burma

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:30 AM PDT

Malaysian officials urge Burma to take stronger actions to prevent the persecution of Muslims and to bring perpetrators to justice.

Malaysia's Foreign Minister, Anifah Aman, made the comments during the Association of South East Asian Nations summit in Brunei over the weekend.

Aman’s remarks are the latest sign that the communal violence is straining ties between neighboring countries in South East Asia.

Rally against Time

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 02:17 AM PDT

About 400 Buddhist monks and civilians marched against Time Magazine after it dubbed radical Buddhist monk Wirathu, 'The Face of Buddhist Terror' on its front cover.

The article documented the ongoing violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Burma and Sri Lanka but demonstrators claimed it condemned Buddhism as terrorism.

Last week, the government banned Time's July cover story.

Three injured after motorbike explodes near military academy

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 01:56 AM PDT

Two military personnel and a civilian were injured after a motorbike exploded over the weekend in Pyin Oo Lwyin near the country's Defence Services Academy (DSA).

The city's police department said they have found no evidence that the blast was planned.

"As far as we've learnt, the explosion was presumably caused by heat – we didn't find any traces of explosives," said an official at Pyin Oo Lwin Police Station.

"We are still investigating the details – the motorbike was blown to pieces and we are looking into how that happened."

According to a local news reporter U Zaw, who was at the scene after the incident, a military cadet attending the DSA sustained a serious leg injury after the motorbike parked by the city's sports stadium alongside the Lashio-Mandalay road in Pyin Oo Lwin blew up.

"It was quite a strong explosion," said U Zaw. "Three people; a military cadet, a sergeant and a civilian, who were walking by were injured."

During a similar instance in 2011, a bomb was detonated in an empty house in Pyin Oo Lwin as explosives concurrently erupted in Mandalay and Naypyidaw on the same day.

Hundreds protest against Time magazine in downtown Rangoon

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 12:34 AM PDT

Hundreds of Buddhist monks and Rangoon residents denounced Time magazine's July cover story on Buddhist nationalism, while praising Thein Sein's government for banning the article during a rally in the commercial capital on Sunday.

Carrying banners inscribed with statements in Burmese and nonsensical English translations, the protestors marched around Independence Monument in Sule Park and slammed the article that dubbed Burma’s infamous monk Wirathu as "The Face of Buddhist Terror".

"The government and Religious Ministry previously made official statements to denounce the magazine's cover, but we would like to practically inform the people in Burma and across the world – both in Burmese and English – that Buddhism is not a religion of terror and that it doesn't allow or encourage killing," said Parmouhka, a monk from Magwe who helped organise the demonstration.

"Buddhism is the religion of peace, we would like to help people and government leaders of different religions across the world to better understand it, so they can all become Buddhists."

According to a report in Reuters, the demonstrators were granted official permission in accordance with the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law.

Last week, the government banned Time's July cover story, which investigates the rise of Buddhist nationalism in Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Officials said the ban aimed to prevent sectarian violence from erupting again in the country.The magazine's cover featured Burma's most notorious monk Wirathu, who is renowned for unleashing vitriolic sermons against the country's Muslim minority and leading the Buddhist nationalism movement.

Much like Yugoslavia and Iraq, sectarian tensions have exploded in Burma in the absence of iron-fisted rule. On 27 June, hundreds of Buddhist monks gathered in Aung San Monastery in Insein township, where they officially formed an organisation to 'Safeguard the Race and Buddhist Religion.'

The agreement follows similar conferences in June that have seen the promotion of a draft law that would prohibit interfaith marriage between Buddhists and Muslims.

Riots pitting Buddhist Arakanese against Muslim Rohingya erupted in May 2012, displacing more than 150,000 people and killing hundreds. Since then, sectarian tensions have spread from the country's southwestern coast to the Shan plateau in northern Burma.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)