By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar – Myanmar declared a state of emergency on Friday and imposed martial law in four districts, including the city of Meikhtila, after violence broke out between Buddhists and Muslims.

A police report said the clash between the two religious groups started after a Buddhist couple had an argument with a Muslim gold shop owner.  The argument took a turn for the worse and sparked an eruption of violence involving hundreds of people.

At least twenty people have been killed so far and dozens more have been wounded.  One of the casualties was a Buddhist monk.  Thousands of other bystanders have been displaced from their homes due to the conflict and two camps have been set up to house the victims.

Mobs of Buddhists marched through Meikhtila’s Muslim districts with torches burning down Muslim homes and other establishments.  Myanmar’s state run television reported mosques burning in Yamethin along with 50 more homes.  Mosques and other Muslim buildings in Lewei and Naypyitaw were also set on fire.

Local residents in the affected cities and districts had complained that there were not enough local police forces to quell the unrest.  Myanmar President Thein Sein sent in national military forces to take charge of security.  An overnight curfew was also imposed to improve safety for the citizens.

Ethnic and religious tensions had been simmering underneath the surface of Myanmar’s communities during 49 years of military rule which ceased in March of 2011.  The military rule had quashed all dissent and kept conflicts in check.  The fledgling democracy is now challenged with the task of unifying one of Asia’s most ethnically diverse countries.

Myanmar is largely Buddhist; however, roughly 5 percent of the 60 million residents are Muslim.  Historically, there are well established and long standing Muslims communities in Yangon and Mandalay, two of Myanmar’s largest cities.

This most recent outbreak of violence is similar to the conflict between Rahkine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya last year in western Myanmar that affected and displaced more than 100,000 residents.  Human rights groups had warned that the western conflict could spread to other parts of the country.

In a separate incident last year, Buddhist monks held rallies against Muslims in the central part of Myanmar near the city of Mandalay.  The current conflict is described by locals as “unpredictable and dangerous.”

Many residents of Meikhtila, where the fighting was the worse, do not feel safe in their own communities.  An estimated 6000 residents have already fled their homes, including 1200 Muslims and have taken refuge at a police station and a large event stadium.

For further information, please see:

Charlotte Observer – Buddhists-Muslims violence spreads in Myanmar – 24 March 2013

Tulsa World News – Sectarian violence kills 20 in Myanmar; state of emergency declared – 23 March 2013

Reuters – Myanmar riots stoke fears of widening sectarian violence – 22 March 2013

Daily Mail – Myanmar riots stoke fears of widening sectarian violence – 21 March 2013

By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

Local Indian police arrested five or six young men who allegedly gang raped a Swiss female tourist on Friday, bringing into question India’s commitment to providing adequate safety to women within its borders.

The Swiss woman, age 39, was vacationing with her husband when the gruesome crime occurred.  She and her husband were engaged in a 250 kilometer (roughly 155 miles) biking adventure tour from Orchha to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal when they stopped to camp near Sewda road.

They set up camp in a forested area, and the suspected perpetrators invaded their camp area during the night.  The men beat the woman’s husband with wooden sticks, and some of the men sexually assaulted and brutally raped the woman in front of her husband while he was tied up to a tree.

The suspects were reportedly carrying a firearm at the time of the assault.  Police say that the attackers also stole some of the pair’s valuables including cellular phones, laptop computer, and around 10,000 rupees ($185).

The young men suspected of committed the crime were all members of a local tribe known as the Kanjar from the village of Jharia in the Datia district.  Police checked the criminal history of the men and found their records to be clean.  Their ages ranged from 20 to 25.

The couple has made it safely to the Swiss embassy in New Delhi.  The Swiss Ministry for Foreign Affairs released a statement to the press indicating that there is an extreme interest in rectifying the situation for their two citizens, and a course of action will be implemented in due time.

The Swiss government had recently issued a travel warning last month to all tourists travelling to India regarding the alarming number of rapes and other sexual attacks occurring throughout the country.  Other countries may be prompted to release similar warnings to their general publics in the near future.

This newest incident involving a foreign victim comes at a time when sexual crimes in India are on the rise.  The National Crime Records Bureau suggests that roughly one woman is raped every 20 minutes in their country.

After last December’s brutal rape and murder of a physiotherapy student in Delhi, protestors took to the streets to demonstrate and called for the perpetrators to be sentenced to death.  India’s legislature has recently implemented harsher punishments for the crime of rape, increasing the prison terms from seven to ten years to a maximum of 20 years.

For further information, please see:

BBC – Six held over India rape of Swiss woman – 18 March 2013

The Times of India – 5 arrested for Swiss woman’s gang-rape – 18 March 2013

The Huffington Post – Five Men Arrested In Gang-Rape Of Swiss Woman In India – 17 March 2013

Reuters –  Six arrested for gang-raping Swiss tourist in India: police – 17 March 2013

By Karen Diep
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BANGKOK, Thailand – Yesterday, the Thai Navy denied reports of its members opening fire at a boat last February containing 20 Rohingya Muslim refugees, resulting in the deaths of at least two of the asylum seekers.

According to Voice of America, in recent months, thousands of Rohingyas are fleeing the ethnic turmoil and state-sponsored discrimination in Western Burma. As a result, many are traveling by boat to Malaysia and ending up on the West coast of Thailand.

“[N]o [Thai] navy officer could be that ruthless,” said Thai Navy commander Admiral Surasak Rounroengrom.

Mr. Surasak continued to state that the Thai Navy possessed no reason to kill the Rohingya refugees because they were not an enemy.

Although Thailand has refused to accept most of the refugees, it has ordered its navy to stop these boats to provide them with supplies.

“Since the policy is to push them back out to sea, we provide humanitarian aid with food and water, medicine and gas for them to continue their journey. All we do is help them, even fixing their boats [if necessary], before sending them back on their way,” continued Mr. Surasak.

However, according to BBC News, eyewitnesses said otherwise.  Witnesses informed human rights groups that they saw several bodies in the water and even protected some of these refugees during and after the February incident.

“Navy personnel fired into the air three times and told us not to move,” relayed one of the Rohungya refugees to Human Rights Watch (HRW), “But we were panicking and jumped off the boat, and then they opened fire at us in the water.”

Although the spokesperson for the United Nations refugee agency, Vivian Tan, can neither confirm nor deny the events last month, she stated that her agency is worried about the fate of Rohingya refugees.

“U.N.H.C.R. has been advocating that people fleeing persecution should be able to be processed in the country or territory where they arrive.  So, they should not be pushed off for sure,” said Ms. Tan, “They should definitely not be sent back to a place where their lives could be in danger.”

Historically, Thai officials have been suspect of dragging refugee boats that end up in Thai waters out to sea and leave them to die.  Furthermore, they have been accused of selling on asylum seekers to human traffickers.

According to BBC’s South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head, Thai authorities are rarely held accountable for these allegations regardless of their promise to investigate such incidents.

For further information, please see:

BBC News – Thai Navy Denies Shooting Rohingya Refugee – 15 March 2013

The United Press International – Thais Deny Firing on Rohingya Refugees – 14 March 2013

Voice of America – Fleeing Rohingya Refugees Fired Upon, Says Rights Group – 13 March 2013