International Crisis Group

Anti-Muslim ‘radicals’ driving Myanmar unrest, experts say | South China Morning Post

Two years after a repressive junta ceded power, Myanmar is grappling with a surge in religious extremism that experts trace to anti-Muslim “provocateurs” including radical Buddhist monks.

At least 43 people have been killed while mosques and Muslim homes have been destroyed over the past fortnight in central Myanmar, in a wave of violence that witnesses say seems to have been well organised.

“It is clear that there are some agents provocateurs with radical anti-Muslim agendas at work in the country – including influential Buddhist monks preaching intolerance and hatred of Muslims,” said Jim Della-Giacoma, a Myanmar expert with the International Crisis Group think-tank.

FULL ARTICLE (AFP via South China Morning Post)

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Myanmar on edge after new eruption of interreligious violence | LA Times

By Emily Alpert

The Meiktila violence echoes clashes last year in the western state of Rakhine, where hundreds were slain in riots between majority Rakhine Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims. The bloodshed has marred hopes for Myanmar, also known as Burma, as it takes steps toward democratic reform.

The International Crisis Group has suggested that ethnic unrest might actually be a byproduct of reform, by allowing all kinds of causes “unprecedented space to organize that has been denied for decades.”

“This probably represents the most significant challenge to the democratic reform process underway in Myanmar,” said Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the group. “While the government was able to reestablish order, it’s clear that the underlying problems have not yet been dealt with.”

FULL ARTICLE (LA Times)

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Myanmar in Transition: Louise Arbour | PBS

Crisis Group’s President and CEO, Louise Arbour, was interviewed for PBS Great Decisions’ documentary on Myanmar.  The transcript of her interview is available online.

When should the international community intervene in a humanitarian crisis?

Well, the international community should intervene at all times where there’s a real grave risk of loss of human life or mass atrocities. The real difficult question is, “How should it intervene?” not so much whether it should. And currently we all have in mind military interventions but there are lots of other forms of interventions that are considerably less coercive or catastrophic in their possible consequences. Diplomacy – I think we have to reinvest considerably more in sort of preventative diplomacy engagement. Paying attention, early warnings, all of these kinds of preventative mechanisms I think have to be activated at all times.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

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In light of President Obama’s visit to Myanmar, check out Crisis Group’s most recent report, Myanmar: Storm Clouds on the Horizon.

Photo: Pete Souza/Wikimedia Commons

Analysis: How real are Myanmar’s reforms? | IRIN

LONDON, 19 November 2012 (IRIN) - The visit of US President Barack Obama to Myanmar on 19 November has renewed international interest in the country’s democratic reforms, but also skepticism about their impact on the lives of ordinary Burmese.

Since Myanmar’s reform-minded President Thein Sein came to office in March 2011, hundreds of political prisoners have been released, freedom of assembly has been allowed, media censorship has eased, and the country’s cabinet has been reshuffled.

FULL ARTICLE (IRIN)

Photo: Marcel Münch/Flicker 

Moral leadership required to calm tensions in Rakhine State: ICG | Mizzima News

There is a real risk that the localized conflict in Rakhine State could take on a more general Buddhist-Muslim dimension and spread to other parts of multi-religious and multi-ethnic Burma, says the International Crisis group (ICG).

In a report titled Myanmar: Storm Clouds on the Horizon, released on November 12, the international think tank said that “even as Myanmar’s [Burma’s] democratic transition continues apace, ethnic violence in Rakhine State represents a threat to national stability.

“It demands decisive moral leadership from all the country’s leaders as they strive to find long-term solutions to the many challenges that lie ahead, including longstanding discrimination of the Rohingya and other Muslim minorities,” it said.

The report comes just days ahead of a historic visit to Burma by US President Barack Obama who is under pressure, according to a report by Reuters, to take a tough line with the Burmese leadership “to do more to curb sectarian violence.”

FULL ARTICLE (Mizzima News)

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Arakan Strife Could Spread Across Burma: ICG | The Irrawaddy

By Charlie Campbell

Recent sectarian violence in Arakan (Rakhine) State threatens national stability and could spread into wider religious conflict unless tackled through decisive moral leadership, claims the International Crisis Group (ICG) in a new report.

Myanmar: Storm Clouds on the Horizon indicates there is a real risk that the localized Arakan State conflict could take on a more general Buddhists-versus-Muslims dimension and spread to other parts of the multi-religious and multi-ethnic country.

“Social tensions are rising as more freedom allows local conflicts to resurface,” says Paul Quinn-Judge, ICG’s acting Asia program director. “Moral leadership is required now to calm tensions and new compromises will be needed if divisive confrontation is to be avoided.”

FULL ARTICLE (The Irrawaddy)

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Obama to visit Myanmar, an overture to a one-time pariah | Christian Science Monitor

By Dan Murphy

Rarely has a country been brought back into the American fold as fast as Myanmar (also known as Burma) has. 

Starting in late 2010, the military junta that has run the country since 1962 stunningly reversed course.

Not only did it release Aun San Suu Kyi, whose political party won the 1990 elections that the military promptly ignored, from almost two decades of imprisonment and house arrest, but allowed her unprecedented freedom of movement and political organization.

FULL ARTICLE (Christian Science Monitor)

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