Seven monks are reported dead after a riot in Mrauk U, Rakhine

News24xx.com -  Seven Buddhists were killed after a riot broke out in Mrauk Rakhin district, Myanmar on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 local time.

Local police tried to disperse a mob that trying to seize a local government office of Mrauk U by fired of teargas into the crowd.

"As many as seven people were killed and 13 others wounded in violence in Mrauk U. More than 20 policemen were injured by gunfire and rocks that thrown by the masses," police spokesman Myo Soe said on Wednesday 17 January 2016.

The incident began when about 5,000 Buddhists gathered for a national ceremony at Mrauk U, a town that not too far from the site where the military reportedly committed acts of violence against Rohingya ethnic minorities.

Until now, it is not clear what caused the clash to happen.

According to Myo Soe, initially the mob insisted to breaking into the district administration office to raise the flag of Rakhine State.

"The security forces have asked them to disperse and fired warning shots with rubber bullets. However, they do not stop, so the police have to use the real bullets, " Myo Soe said.

Rakhine is known as the one of the less developed and marginalized regions in Myanmar, as it has a history of high divisions and communal hatred.

However, the riots in Mrauk U were reportedly not related to the human tragedy that has been targeting of Rohingya ethnic .

The clashes was happened on the same day when Myanmar and Bangladesh agreed to begin a process of repatriation for 650,000 Rohingya refugees from refugee camps across the Bangladesh border.

 

The refugee repatriation cooperation agreement was approved by the two countries last November as one of the efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine which has killed 1,000 people from the Rohingyas.

 

 

 

News24xx.com/par/dev