Persecution of all Muslims in Myanmar on the rise, rights group says

  05 September 2017    Read: 1230
Persecution of all Muslims in Myanmar on the rise, rights group says
The systematic persecution of minority Muslims is on the rise across Myanmar and not confined to the northwestern state of Rakhine, where recent violence has sent nearly 90,000 Muslim Rohingya fleeing, a Myanmar rights group said on Tuesday.
The independent Burma Human Rights Network said that persecution was backed by the government, elements among the country’s Buddhist monks, and ultra-nationalist civilian groups.

“The transition to democracy has allowed popular prejudices to influence how the new government rules, and has amplified a dangerous narrative that casts Muslims as an alien presence in Buddhist-majority Burma,” the group said in a report.

The report draws on more than 350 interviews in more than 46 towns and villages over an eight-month period since March 2016.

Myanmar’s government made no immediate response to the report. Authorities deny discrimination and say security forces in Rakhine are fighting a legitimate campaign against “terrorists”.

Besides Rohingya Muslims, the report also examines the wider picture of Muslims of different ethnicities across Myanmar following waves of communal violence in 2012 and 2013.



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