Myanmar arrests 44 suspects after Buddhist-led attacks in Thandwe

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YANGON, Myanmar -- Authorities in Myanmar arrested 44 suspects for their alleged role in sectarian violence that wracked a coastal township in western Myanmar over the last week, state media reported.

<< Distorted corrugate panels are scattered among debris of a burnt building in Thandwe, Rakhine State, western Burma, Oct. 2, 2013.

Five Muslims were killed and scores of homes set on fire when Buddhist mobs went on a rampage in Thandwe, a coastal township in Rakhine state.

The violence came even as President Thein Sein visited the region last week for the first time since in Rakhine in June 2012, killing hundreds of people and forcing more than 140,000 more to flee, the majority of them Muslim.

Few details were released about the latest arrests but a report broadcast on state television late Saturday indicated members of both communities were arrested.

Officials in Rakhine state said last week that the chairman of a Rakhine political party and several of its members were among those detained.

On Sunday, the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper put the total of houses burned down in Thandwe last week at 114 houses. It said three religious buildings - most likely mosques - were destroyed, and 482 people were left homeless.

Thein Sein has been widely praised for overseeing an unprecedented political opening in the Southeast Asian nation since the army ceded power two years ago to a nominally civilian government led by retired military officers.

But rights groups also accuse his government of tolerating, or even abetting, what they describe as ethnic cleansing directed against Muslims in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

They say authorities have done little to crack down on religious intolerance and failed to bridge a divide that has left hundreds of thousands of Muslims marginalized, many of them confined by security forces in inadequately equipped camps after fleeing their homes.

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Dalai Lama condemns Buddhist attacks on Muslims in Myanmar, Sri Lanka

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NEW DELHI, India -- The Dalai Lama has reached out to monks in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, imploring them to end recent violence towards Muslims in their countries.

<< Peaceful words: In his speech at the University of Maryland, the Dalai Lama implored Buddhist monks to stop the violent and deadly anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka and Myanmar

The Buddhist spiritual leader blamed those of his own religion for recent violent attacks in south Asia, while giving a speech at the University of Maryland.

Hundreds have died and more than 135,000 people have fled their homes in Myanmar, also known as Burma, in the past year's brutal assaults.

In Sri Lanka, Buddhist groups have recently attacked Muslim businesses.

In his speech on Tuesday, the Dalai Lama condemned all killings in the name of religion and admitted that not even Buddhists were exempt from carrying out religious attacks.

‘Killing people in the name of religion is really very sad, unthinkable, very sad,’ the Nobel Peace laureate said.

‘Nowadays even Buddhists are involved, in Burma and Sri Lanka. Buddhist monks destroying Muslim mosques or Muslim families - it's really very sad.’

Dalai Lama begged Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Myanmar to look to their own religion to end the recent escalating violence against Muslims.

'When they develop some sort of negative emotions toward the Muslim community, then please think of the face of Buddha.’

'If the Buddha is there, he will protect the Muslims, he said in the speech in front of 15,000 gathered at the University of Maryland.

However, his calming words may be in vain as Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka are predominantly Theravada Buddhists, which is separate from the Dalai Lama's Tibetan school, which means they do not answer to his authority.

Religious violence in Myanmar flared up a year ago when mobs of Buddhists armed with machetes razed thousands of Muslim homes in the western Rakhine state, leaving hundreds dead and forcing 125,000 people to flee.

That violence has since spread into a campaign against the country's Muslim community in other regions.

In March, at least 43 people were killed and 12,000 displaced in the central city of Meikhtila when Buddhist mobs rampaged through the town and police stood idly by. Most of the victims were Muslim.

Last week, one person was killed and nine others injured when Buddhists stormed a township 50 miles north of the main city Yangon, ransacking mosques and burning villages to the ground.

Sri Lanka, where 70 per cent identify themselves as Buddhists, compared to 9.7 per cent Muslim, is seeing a rise in attacks on Muslim-owned businesses and hate speeches in public places.

Groups led by Buddhist monks accuse the small Muslim minority of dominating business on the island nation and secretly sterilising Buddhists.

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