US embassy cable - 03RANGOON1361

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 001361 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/28/2013 
TAGS: PHUM, PINS, SCUL, PGOV, KISL, BM, Ethnics, Human Rights 
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS/ETHNIC TENSIONS SPREAD TO RANGOON 
 
Classified By: CDA a.i. Ron McMullen for Reasons 1.5 (B,D) 
 
1. (C) Summary: For the past four nights, October 25-28, and 
coinciding with the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, 
Rangoon has experienced low-scale religious violence between 
Muslims and Buddhists that originally flared up in 
mid-October in upper Burma.  The motives for these attacks, 
their instigators, and allegations of government involvement 
remain hazy.  Religious conflict is not new in Burma, and 
there is a long history of tension between the Buddhist 
majority and the local "Indian" community, a growing, 
religiously diverse population of South Asians that 
encompasses most of Burma's several million Muslims. 
However, religious and ethnic violence is rare in the capital 
city and the Muslim community is apprehensive about further 
attacks.  The regime has take firm action, deploying riot 
police and troops that have minimized injuries and property 
damage.  However, religious and ethnic tensions are 
significant and underscore general political and economic 
discontent throughout Burma.  End summary. 
 
Religious Conflict Comes to Rangoon 
 
2. (C) According to eyewitness accounts, on four consecutive 
nights October 25-28, Buddhist monks and other "unruly" 
civilians have attacked mosques, shops, and homes in several 
of Rangoon's four major Indian/Muslim quarters.  Muslim 
youths have responded with rock throwing and several injuries 
have been reported.  Embassy officers visited the Muslim 
quarters and observed some broken windows and minor 
destruction of cars and storefronts.  Local residents report 
that government authorities have deployed riot police and 
army troops into the affected neighborhoods to secure the 
areas and to lead early morning clean-up operations, leaving 
very little evidence of the violent confrontations.  The GOB 
has reportedly instituted an indefinite 7:00 pm curfew on 
monasteries in the Rangoon area, but has not made any public 
acknowledgment of the skirmishes. 
 
3. (C) The Rangoon incidents come on the tail of several 
violent Buddhist-Muslim confrontations on October 11-12 and 
19-20 in two towns near Mandalay.  A representative of a 
Islamic organization in Rangoon told us that these two 
incidents claimed nine lives and led to the destruction of 
two mosques and several homes.  The representative said he 
thought the clashes emanated from a personal business dispute 
and then spread along religious lines.  He blamed local 
authorities for doing nothing initially to prevent the 
conflict from spreading. 
 
4. (C) According to local contacts, a large troop and police 
presence in the Mandalay area initially prevented the 
mid-October disturbances from spreading directly into Burma's 
second largest city.  However, according to sketchy reports, 
authorities arrested a prominent Buddhist monk on October 28 
for delivering anti-Muslim sermons and troops were 
subsequently dispatched to quell a violent 
counter-demonstration led by several hundred monks at a 
Mandalay monastery. 
 
The Government Responds:  No Problem 
 
5. (C) Following the mid-October skirmishes in the Mandalay 
area, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs convoked ambassadors 
from six Muslim countries and the Ministry of Religious 
Affairs summoned leaders of Burma's four main Muslim groups 
to brief them on developments.  According to our diplomatic 
colleagues, the GOB downplayed the violence and gave 
assurances that the government had full control of the 
situation.  The Pakistan DCM told us on October 28 that the 
Muslim diplomatic corps planned to deliver a joint demarche 
before the end of the week expressing deep concern over the 
latest attacks and skirmishes in Rangoon.  He said that the 
tight-knit South Asian and Muslim communities were 
apprehensive about further violence.  He added his own view 
that religious tensions were an annual occurrence in Burma, 
coinciding with various religious holidays, but that violence 
in Rangoon was rare. 
 
6. (C) On October 28, the Minister of Religious Affairs gave 
Muslim leaders an additional briefing and claimed that the 
attacks near Mandalay and in Rangoon had been the work of 
"underground cells of political opposition groups" hoping to 
embarrass Burma during the APEC Summit and various ASEAN 
meetings.  The Minister detailed government actions to date, 
including the detention of the anti-Muslim monk in Mandalay 
and the arrest of 43 monks involved in the Rangoon attacks, 
and promised that the GOB would do all it could to prevent 
further religious violence.  However, the Minister urged the 
Muslim leaders to take care of themselves and their 
communities, avoiding any provocation or acts of revenge. 
One Muslim leader told us that local government officials had 
separately threatened to arrest any Muslim calling the 
faithful to prayer via loudspeaker or undertaking any other 
publicly "provocative" act.  Muslim leaders tell us they will 
do what they can, but add that they cannot stop their 
followers from "defending themselves or their homes." 
 
History Often Repeats 
 
7. (C) Small-scale religious violence in Burma is unusual, 
especially in Rangoon, but hardly unprecedented.  There was a 
small skirmish between Buddhists and Muslims in a town about 
150 miles south of Mandalay in July and a larger incident 
occurred in 2000 in Pyay, about 200 miles northwest of 
Rangoon.  There is also a long history, tracing back to the 
British colonial era, of mutual mistrust and dislike between 
the predominately Buddhist Burman majority and the minority 
Muslim, Hindu, and Christian Burmese citizens of Indian 
origin.  In fact, the South Asian community was until late in 
the colonial period the majority ethnic group in Rangoon, 
outnumbering native Burmans.  It is a common belief, though 
unsubstantiated, that the government itself often provokes 
these Buddhist-Muslim clashes to divert people's attention 
from food shortages or other economic and political problems. 
 
Comment: Who's to Blame? 
 
8. (C) The complicated nature of inter-religious relations in 
Burma makes motive for these latest disturbances hard to 
grasp.  Muslim leaders in Rangoon reject the GOB's claims of 
sinister political "destructionists" and assert that the 
attacks were too well organized to be anything but 
government-sponsored.  We have no solid proof that the GOB or 
one of its instruments were involved, though, and it seems 
illogical to inflame traditional tensions in the heart of the 
capital city. 
 
9. (C) The Mandalay and Rangoon flare ups, provoked by the 
SPDC or not, are likely fueled this year by overlapping major 
Buddhist and Muslim holidays.  During this period, hotheads 
of both religions are at the peak of chauvinism; identifying 
themselves most powerfully as Buddhists or Muslims -- rather 
than Burmese citizens all suffering together under the same 
yoke.  Though it appears the regime is taking steps to ensure 
these tensions remain in hand, an increasingly large Muslim 
community in Rangoon may be less likely than in the past to 
take religious violence lying down. 
McMullen