July 16-23, 2015

Continuing violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Mandalay

State-owned media

Myanmar Times – “Arrests made over Mandalay killings,” 20 July 2014

• Following violence between Muslims and Buddhists in Mandalay on 2 July, Burmese police have made a number of arrests in connection with the deaths.
• Two people are known to have died and 20 were injured in the riots.
• The killings were sparked by reports of the rape of a Buddhist maid by two Muslim brothers.

New Light of Myanmar – “Act according to the will of the people,” 21 July 2014 

• State media announced that the rumour that sparked riots in Mandalay was false.
• “It has been exposed that the violence in Mandalay was caused by false accusation of rape,” according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• The government condemned the violence by reminding citizens that the government alone should be responsible for the punishment of crime in Burma.
• “A country has its own laws to take action against offenders. These laws represent the collective will of all citizens… When a person commits a crime, he or she must be punished according to the law or according to the collective will of the people. No one has the right to punish others on their own individual wills,” the article read. 

Private media

Democratic Voice of Burma –  “False rape claim caused riots, says ministry,” 21 July 2014

• The government maintains that the rape claim that caused rioting in Mandalay was an elaborate plot of false, revenge-inspired allegations.
• It maintains that the Buddhist woman was in debt after her husband was jailed on drug charges. It is alleged that the two people assisting her husband’s case offered her money to accuse the Muslim brothers of rape to revenge a personal dispute.
• The investigation found no sign of rape or other violence on the woman’s body.
• A curfew was imposed as security forces moved in to disperse mobs
• The rumour was spread via social media; Facebook was blocked in an effort to end the riots.

Myanmar news blog – “False rape claim behind latest religious clashes in Myanmar,” 20 July 2014

• The government has claimed that false rape claims were behind the latest violence in the Mandalay region in attempt to quell tensions. 
• Deadly religious flare-ups have prompted warnings that the country’s fragile transition to democracy could be imperilled.
• Responding to the rioting, President Thein Sein said ‘serious action’ would be taken against those involved and hinted that hard-won media freedoms could be compromised if unrest continued. 

Burma Times – “Muslim student girl hacked by Buddhists,” 21 July 2014

• The latest violence in the clashes between Muslims and Buddhists involved an alleged attack on a young Muslim girl.
• The student was hacked in the street by Buddhists who drove past on motorbikes.
• The girl’s hand was severely injured; she was treated at a local hospital.

Media Freedom

State-owned media

Myanmar Times (state-run English language weekly) – “Journalist association patron slams latest arrests,” 14 July 2014

• The arrest of four leading journalists of the Bi Mon Te Nay (The Midday Sun) journal last week is yet another indication of a clamping down on media freedoms in Burma.
• The editor and three of his staff were arrested after publishing a report that wrongly claimed that ethnic leaders had been appointed to an interim government to serve until after next year’s elections.
• They were charged under Section 5 of the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, which forbids the ‘spread of false news, flowing or having reason to believe that it is not true.’
• The arrests were made without consulting the press council, in violation of recently enacted Media Law. 
• The journal was forced to stop publishing for a week and copies of the issue were taken from newsstands.
• ‘They took three computers as well as one printer, Internet equipment and documents to investigate. They also took published journals off the market,’ said chief reporter Ko Thein Min Aung.

Private 

Karen News – “Jailing of journalists ‘reminiscent of the press oppression seen under the military dictatorship’,” 21 July 2014

• Five journalists from Unity Weekly journal have been sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets, in violation of the 1923 State Secrets Act.
• They reported on the existence of an alleged chemical weapons factory in Magwe region.
• The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has released a statement declaring that the Government’s recent suppression of media is “reminiscent of the old military dictatorship” which used to rule over Burma.
• Ko Bo Kyi, Secretary of the AAPP said, “I feel doubt whether the journalists got a fair trial. Additionally, the incarceration of the Unity journalists reveals the lack of progress that the Burmese government has made in protecting civil liberties. AAPP has become increasingly concerned for the safety of journalists in Burma.” 

Women’s rights activists stand trial

Private

Democratic Voice of Burma – “Women’s rights activists stand trial in Chin State for protesting against army rape,” 16 July 2014

• Eight Burmese women’s rights activists were questioned in two separate legal cases in Matupi Township Court in Chin State, for staging unauthorised public protests against sexual violence by the Burmese military.
• 400 protesters gathered in Rezua in June, in demonstrations sparked by the alleged rape of a 55-year-old woman by a Burmese soldier.
• Event organisers twice requested permission to conduct the demonstration but were rebuffed by the authorities.
• The Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO) urged authorities to “immediately and unconditionally drop the charges against the activists,” and called for “an impartial and independent investigation into serious human rights violations in Burma, including sexual violence, to deter further violations and end the culture of impunity.”
• CHRO has documented five cases of sexual violence perpetrated by the Burmese military in Chin State since President Thein Sein came to power in 2011.

 Karen News – The Women’s League of Burma Accuses Burma Army of Protecting Rapists In Its Ranks, 18 July 2014 

• The Women’s League of Burma (WLB) has made a stand against the alleged sexual violence of the Burmese army.
• The WLB emphasised the reaction of the authorities to the demonstrators as evidence of military infiltration of the government and a culture of “systematic impunity,” which protected Burmese army rapists.
• “It is extremely disturbing that the backlash on these woman activists has not only come from the military establishment but also from the so-called civilian administration, from the township level right up to the Chin State parliament. This reveals clearly the continuing pervasive power of the military at every level of government in Burma and highlights the urgent need for structural reform to curb this power in order to protect women from military rape,” declared the WLB.
• A WLB report in 2014 documented the rape of more than 100 women and girls, including 47 gang rapes by the Burmese Army since the new government took power in 2011. According to the report, 28 of the women and girls were either killed or later died as a result of their injuries. 

*No state-run media covered this event.