Massacre in Central Burma: Muslim Students Terrorized and Killed in Meiktila
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research City College of New York 2013 Massacre in Central Burma: Muslim Students Terrorized and Killed in Meiktila Richard Sollom Physicians for Human Rights Holly G. Atkinson CUNY City College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_pubs/409 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Physicians for Massacre In Central Burma: Human Rights Muslim Students Terrorized and Killed in Meiktila May 2013 Burmese boys stand near a destroyed home on April 5, 2013, in Meiktila, Burma. Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images physiciansforhumanrights.org About Physicians for Human Rights For more than 25 years, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)’s use of science and medicine has been on the cutting edge of human rights work. 1986 2003 Led investigations of torture in Warned US policymakers on health Chile, gaining freedom for heroic and human rights conditions prior doctors there to and during the invasion of Iraq 1988 2004 First to document the Iraqi use Documented genocide and sexual of chemical weapons on Kurds, violence in Darfur in support of providing evidence for prosecution international prosecutions of war criminals 2010 1996 Investigated the epidemic of Exhumed mass graves in the violence spread by Burma’s Balkans for International Tribunals, military junta and sounded the alarm about refugee camps in Bosnia and 2012 Kosovo Trained doctors, lawyers, police, and judges in the Democratic 1996 Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and Provided evidence of genocide for Syria on the proper collection of the International Criminal Tribunal evidence in sexual violence cases for Rwanda 2013 1997 Won first prize in the Tech Shared the Nobel Peace Prize for Challenge for Atrocity Prevention the International Campaign to Ban with MediCapt, our mobile app Landmines that documents evidence of torture and sexual violence 2 Arrow Street 1156 15th Street, NW physiciansforhumanrights.org Suite 301 Suite 1001 Cambridge, MA Washington, DC ©2013 Physicians for Human Rights. 02138 USA 20005 USA All rights reserved. 617.301.4200 202.728.5335 Massacre in Central Burma: Muslim Students Terrorized and Killed in Meiktila Contents 2 Acknowledgments 3 Introduction 4 Background 5 Map: Anti-Muslim Violence in Burma March – April 2013 6 Methods and Limitations 8 Composite Narrative of Mingalar Zayyone Massacre 18 Corroborating Evidence 20 Conclusions Property destroyed during the violence in 21 Policy Recommendations Meiktila, Burma from March 20-24, 2013. Photo: Hein Aung 22 Map: PHR-Verified Destruction of Mosques and Islamic Schools in the City of Meiktila, Burma March 20-23, 2013 23 References Physicians for Human Rights Acknowledgments his report was written by This report is based on field research Marissa Brodney, program associate at Richard Sollom, MA, MPH, conducted by Richard Sollom, Holly PHR; Brendan Sozer, consultant at PHR; director of emergencies at Atkinson, and Bill Davis, MPH, for- Jennifer Zimmerman, volunteer at PHR, Physicians for Human Rights mer Burma project director at PHR. and PHR interns Scott Battey, Alex Lee, (PHR); and Holly Atkinson, The report has benefited from re- and Erin Roberts assisted with back- MD, FACP, director of the view by Deborah Ascheim, MD, ground research. THuman Rights Program, Mount Sinai PHR board chair, associate profes- Global Health, assistant professor, sor in the Departments of Health Support for the investigations and re- Department of Medicine, Icahn School Evidence and Policy and Medicine/ port was provided by the Open Society of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and volun- Cardiovascular Institute at the Icahn Foundations. teer medical advisor and past president School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, at PHR. Policy recommendations were and clinical director of research and written by Hans Hogrefe, Washington director of the Clinical Research Unit director at PHR; and Andrea Gittleman, at the International Center for Health JD, senior legislative counsel at PHR. Outcomes and Innovation Research Stephen Greene, senior communica- (InCHOIR) at Mount Sinai; Catherine tions advisor at PHR, drafted the intro- DeAngelis, MD, MPH, PHR board duction and copyedited the report. member, university distinguished ser- vice professor emerita and professor emerita at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (pediatrics) and School of Public Health (Health Service Managment), and editor-in-chief emerita of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association; and Michele Heisler, MD, MPA, PHR board member, associate professor of in- ternal medicine and health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan medical school and re- search scientist at the Ann Arbor VA’s Center for Clinical Management Research, co-director of the University of Michigan’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Clinical Scholars Program, and associate director of the UM Medical School’s Global REACH program. Massacre in Central Burma: Muslim Students Terrorized and Killed in Meiktila Introduction nti-Muslim violence This report includes the most detailed At a time when the United States and swept through central narrative to date of the attack on European Union have been lifting sanc- Burma in spring 2013, Muslim students, teachers, and neigh- tions against Burma and strengthening reportedly sparked by borhood residents in the Mingalar economic ties, PHR hopes this report an argument at a gold Zayyone quarter of Meiktila, as com- will refocus attention on a horrific shop and the killing of a piled from interviews with 33 key infor- example of religious violence that has ABuddhist monk in the town of Meiktila mants, including 14 eyewitnesses. The become far too common in Burma in in Burma’s Mandalay Division, on accounts include testimony that local the past several years, as PHR has doc- March 20, 2013.1 During the next three police stood by and watched while umented. Unless more of that country’s days, attacks spread to neighboring hundreds of people went on a rampage political and religious leaders firmly de- townships, as armed groups of men of violence and destruction, including nounce such attacks and take concrete from the majority Buddhist population the killing of unarmed Muslims, and steps to hold perpetrators accountable reportedly set fire to more than 1,500 that some Buddhist monks incited and and promote reconciliation, Burma’s homes,2 destroyed more than a dozen even participated in the attacks. recent slow progress toward greater mosques and three madrassas, and freedom, openness, and peace could killed more than 100 people3 among The anti-Muslim violence in Meiktila be derailed. the minority Muslim population. provoked an international outcry, and local prosecutors initiated proceedings. Investigators with Physicians for Human Three Muslims were quickly convicted Rights (PHR) dispatched to the region of theft and assault in April in connec- immediately following these events tion with the dispute at the gold shop, interviewed survivors of a massacre of and six Muslim men were arrested in students and teachers in Meiktila on May on charges related to the killing the morning of March 21. PHR inves- of a Buddhist monk in Meiktila. As of tigators returned to the region in late mid-May, however, no one else had re- April to conduct additional in-depth portedly been charged or convicted for interviews and corroborate testimony assault, murder, or arson in a massacre from survivors, eyewitnesses, and fami- that left dozens of people dead, thou- ly members of those killed. For their se- sands displaced, and many of Meiktila’s curity, the names and identifying details Muslim homes, mosques, schools, and of many of these informants have been businesses destroyed. changed or withheld. Physicians for Human Rights 4 Background he country of Burma Muslims in the nearby town of Kyaukse, Sagaing, Rangoon, and Magway divi- (officially the Union of which killed 11 people and resulted in sions as well as Mon and Shan States.19 Myanmar) has a majority the destruction of two mosques and Anti-Muslim propaganda, often Buddhist population dozens of homes.11 In 2001, anti-Mus- preached by the prominent Buddhist (approximately 82 percent, lim violence that broke out across cen- monk Sayadaw Wirathu, was reported according to government tral Burma resulted in the destruction in many of these areas as well as in the figures) with a minority population of of numerous mosques, businesses, and Irrawaddy Division during the same pe- T 12 Muslims (almost 4 percent, according homes. riod. Largely Buddhist mobs devastated to government figures, but higher numerous Muslim quarters, resulting according to the Muslim community), These simmering tensions erupted in the partial or full destruction of an who are concentrated in Arakan State again in three waves of violence against estimated 1,20020 to 1,600 houses,21 22 and in Mandalay, Bago, Magway, Muslims from June 2012 through April 77 shops, and 37 mosques. In late Rangoon, and Irrawaddy divisions.4 2013. The first, in early June 2012, oc- April and early May, anti-Muslim vio- Meiktila, a small city in central Burma, curred when sectarian violence erupt- lence and threats of violence resumed is located roughly 125 kilometers ed in Burma’s Arakan State between temporarily in parts of Rangoon and 23 south of Mandalay and 125 kilometers