VIEWPOINT
Myanmar’s Buddhists and Muslims Divided by Fire The divide widens between Myanmar’s Buddhists and Muslims after a deadly fire claims the lives of 13 Muslim schoolboys By KYAW ZWA MOE
12
TheIrrawaddy
W
ithin hours of the fatal fire that killed 13 children at a mosque in Yangon on the morning of April 2, three explanations began circulating among people about its possible cause. The first was that it was sparked by an electrical short; the second, that it was an act of arson; and the third, that it was set by radical Muslims to provoke outrage against Buddhists. Setting aside the last theory, which only a tiny handful of conspiratoriallyminded Buddhists in the neighborhood thought plausible, the other two explanations represent, on the one hand, the official version of events, and on the other, a view that betrays the deep-seated distrust that has grown between Myanmar’s Buddhist and Muslim communities. When Irrawaddy reporters, including myself, arrived at the scene, we saw that the street leading to the mosque had been blocked and that riot police had been sent as precaution against possible unrest. There were even army trucks full of soldiers on the main road nearby, ready to move in if necessary. Most of the bystanders were Muslims, looking stern and suspicious. Several journalists, including foreign ones, were interviewing the authorities and witnesses. I asked Win Myint, a Muslim businessman, what he thought caused the fire. Standing in front of the blue Islamic school on 48th Street, he pointed to a window and said that a bundle of fuel-soaked rags could easily have been dropped through it by anyone with a bamboo pole. As a former student of the school, Win Myint hurried to the scene when he heard the tragic news of the fire. He arrived shortly after dawn, and like many other Muslims gathered there, he entered the building soon after the fire was extinguished in search of evidence that it had been deliberately set.
May 2013