Source: Washingtonpost
YANGON, Myanmar — The authorities have ordered people in strife-torn western Myanmar to surrender guns, swords and other weapons to the police within three days or face legal action.
The announcement in the state-run Myanma Ahlin daily on Thursday said that some groups of people in the state of Rakhine had used swords and firearms during recent deadly confrontations between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya communities.
The government on Wednesday said that it has evidence that certain individuals and organizations had instigated the violence. It said 89 people were killed, 136 were injured, and more than 32,000 made homeless when more than 5,000 houses were burned down between Oct. 21 and 30. It did not report any new clashes.
The Thursday announcement from the office of President Thein Sein said 180 homemade firearms had been seized, and the makers of the weapons and their parts detained.
“In order to resolve the conflict peacefully, the authorities ordered people to hand over guns, bayonets, swords, daggers, spikes and all kinds of weapons to the nearest police station as quickly as possible between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3,” Myanma Ahlin reported.
Tensions have simmered in western Myanmar since clashes first broke out in June after a Rakhine woman was allegedly raped and murdered by three Muslim men. About 75,000 people who lost homes or fled those clashes still live in camps for the internally displaced. The total number of displaced now exceeds 100,000.
Three U.N. human rights experts on Wednesday called on the government “to urgently address the underlying causes of the tension and conflict between the Buddhists and Muslim communities in the region,” according to a U.N. statement.
Categories: Asia, Burma, Burmese Muslims, Myanmar, Prayers For Peace