COMMUNAL RIOTS IN MAGWAY DIVISION

C O N F I D E N T I A L RANGOON 000248

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS PREL ECON KISL BM
SUBJECT: COMMUNAL RIOTS IN MAGWAY DIVISION

REF: A. 04 RANGOON 1497

B. 03 RANGOON 1361

Classified By: Poloff Dean Tidwell for Reasons 1.4 (b, d)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Communal rioting erupted between Buddhist
and Muslim communities in central Burma on February 16.
Sources report that three people died and ten others
sustained injuries as Buddhist Burmans attacked Muslim and
Indian shops, homes, and mosques. Authorities imposed a news
blackout and curfews in the region in an effort to prevent a
spread to other regions, as happened after similar communal
riots in 2003. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Embassy sources corroborated international media
reports that rioting erupted between Buddhist and
Muslim/Indian communities in Magway Division in central Burma
on February 16. Following rumors that Muslim men had
allegedly raped a Burman woman near Sinbyukyun town, ethnic
Burmans attacked and torched Muslim and ethnic Indian homes,
shops, and mosques. The rioting and looting spread to other
towns on February 17 and 18, including Chauk, about 25 miles
south of Bagan. According to media reports, local security
forces initially did not intervene, but as the violence
spread authorities imposed a strict curfew in several towns.


3. (C) An Embassy source said that authorities arrested 17
people in Sinbyukyun, including four NLD members. The same
source said that police arrested 55 persons in Chauk, most of
whom were Muslim. Unofficial sources claimed that three
people died in the riots and another 10 were injured.

ANOTHER VERSION


4. (C) According to a Muslim cleric contact in Rangoon, it
was not a rape, but an ethnic misunderstanding that sparked
the riots. A Muslim-operated taxi did not stop when the lone
Burman woman passenger asked to get off. The driver was
reportedly listening to music through earphones and did not
hear her. When the vehicle did not stop, the woman panicked,
jumped off the moving vehicle, and broke her leg. Burman
sources claimed, instead, that Muslim youths had raped the
local woman, the daughter of a prominent Buddhist abbot, and
dropped her along the roadside to die. Assuming the latter,
local ethnic Burman men commenced reprisal attacks against
Muslims and South Asians.


5. (C) COMMENT: In October 2003, similar communal riots
between Buddhist and Muslims in Kyaukse, Mandalay Division
rapidly spread to other parts of the country (reftels). The
GOB reacted more quickly this time, but the incident reveals
underlying tense inter-ethnic relations in the heartland. As
a result of the regime's tight control of information,
rumormongering takes on added importance. Rumormongering
combined with ethnic tensions makes single incidents all the
more combustible and likely to spread. END COMMENT.
VILLAROSA