One sided PERSECUTION raises issue of whether Muslim minority can find justice in country

My comment: One sided PERSECUTION raises issue of whether Muslim minority can find justice in country. Go to HELL Thein Sein-Min Aung Hlaing-Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-Wira Thu-969 led Racist Bigot Buddhist Bama Government.

The Straits Times Published on May 22, 2013

7 Myanmar Muslims get jail over killing of monk

Case raises issue of whether Muslim minority can find justice in country

MEIKHTILA (Myanmar) – A Myanmar court sentenced seven Muslims to prison – one of them to a life term – in the killing of a Buddhist monk amid deadly sectarian violence earlier this year.

The violence – overwhelmingly directed against minority Muslims – has not led to any criminal trials against members of the country’s Buddhist majority.

The issue poses a dilemma for politicians of the country – which is taking baby steps on the path to democracy after decades of military rule. The politicians fear losing support if they embraced justice for the unpopular Muslim minority.

At least 44 people were killed and 12,000 displaced, most of them Muslim, in more than a week of conflicts with Buddhists that began on March 20 in the central Myanmar city of Meikhtila. A dispute at a Muslim-owned gold shop triggered rioting by Buddhists and retaliation by their Muslim targets, and the lynching of the monk after the gold shop was sacked enflamed passions, leading to large-scale violence.

Lawyer Thein Than Oo, who was defending the men sentenced yesterday, said one of his clients, Myat Ko Ko, was given life in prison for murder and an additional two years for unlawful assembly and two years for religious disrespect.

Of the remaining defendants, one received a two-year sentence while the others received terms ranging from six to 28 years. Mandalay Advocate-General Ye Aung Myint confirmed the sentences.

“It’s not fair!” shouted one of the convicted men from inside a prison van as they were being driven away after the trial.

But members of a crowd of about 30 people outside the courthouse expressed unhappiness over the verdict for a different reason: They said they wished the death penalty had been applied against those who were convicted of killing the monk. Monks are highly respected both for their religious devotion and as community leaders.

Entire Muslim neighbourhoods were engulfed in flames, and charred bodies piled on the roads after the March riots. The government declared a state of emergency and deployed the army to restore order, but the unrest later spread to other parts of central Myanmar.

While the violence is now contained, questions are arising over whether minority Muslims can find justice in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar. Hundreds more Muslims have been killed, and tens of thousands made homeless in violence across the country over the past year.

The sectarian strife has tarnished the image of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who has been criticised for failing to speak out strongly in defence of the country’s Muslims. Yesterday, she spoke of the law but not of sectarian tensions when asked about the verdict.

Her supporters, especially abroad, fear she is afraid to take a politically unpopular stand now that her party will mount a bid for power in the next general election in 2015.

The issue of ethnic strife marred this week’s Washington trip by President Thein Sein, a trip otherwise filled with accolades for the first leader of Myanmar to visit the White House in 47 years.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tags: Aung San Suu Kyi, Buddhism, Buddhist, Burma, Muslim, Myanmar, Thein Sein, Washington