YANGON: About 100 monks demonstrated in Myanmar’s main city Yangon yesterday against attacks by Muslim mobs targeting Buddhist temples and homes in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Holding signs with slogans including “The Earth Is for Everyone, Not Only for Muslims” and “Stop Insulting Buddhism”, the robed monks staged a short protest outside the Bangladesh embassy in the former capital.
The rally ended when police asked the monks to disperse.
Sectarian tensions have been running high along the country’s joint border since June when deadly clashes erupted between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.
Myanmar’s government and many Burmese view Myanmar’s stateless Rohingya population as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh police said Tuesday they had arrested nearly 300 people in connection with a wave of violence in the southeast of the country where Buddhist temples and homes were damaged and set on fire.
Buddhist leaders have described the violence against their community as the worst since independence.
At least 20 Buddhist houses were set on fire, dozens of their shops looted and some 100 houses were damaged during the attack that began after Saturday midnight at Ramu town, with about 25,000 Muslims taking part.
The violence then spread to five towns and a dozen villages, after claims that a young Buddhist man had posted Facebook photos defaming Quran.
Buddhists in Bangladesh are based close to the border with Myanmar. AFP
