14 Muslims from Myanmar on trial over brawl with Buddhists in Indonesian detention centre
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| Muslim Rohingya asylum seekers are escorted by police officers before the start of their trial at a district court in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, July 31, 2013. Prosecutors say 14 Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar have gone on trial for a deadly brawl at an Indonesian detention center that left eight Buddhist fishermen from their country dead. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara) |
July 31, 2013
MEDAN, Indonesia - A group of 14 Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar went on trial Wednesday after a deadly brawl at an Indonesian detention centre left eight Buddhist fishermen from their country dead.
The violence occurred April 5 in North Sumatra province, where more than 100 ethnic Rohingya asylum seekers — most intercepted off Indonesia's coast after fleeing Myanmar in rickety boats — and 11 Buddhists from Myanmar accused of illegal fishing were being housed together.
Eight Buddhists were killed, and 15 Muslim Rohingya were injured. Three other Buddhists escaped unharmed.
The Rohingya men are being tried at Medan district court in North Sumatra province. Prosecutors charged them with collective assault and torturing, which carry a maximum sentence of 12 years.
Police and the detention chief say the clash began after a Rohingya Muslim cleric and a fisherman got into a heated debate about religious violence that had erupted a few weeks earlier in central Myanmar.
However, prosecutors told the court that the Rohingya were angered when a female asylum seeker was sexually harassed by the fishermen.
Early this month the same court acquitted three Rohingya teenagers due to a lack of evidence of involvement in the violence.
Boatloads of Rohingya have been arriving on Indonesia's shores following a wave of religious violence in Myanmar, where they are considered illegal settlers from neighbouring Bangladesh. Hundreds have been killed and more than 100,000 left homeless in clashes between Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
The tensions have tested Myanmar's reformist government as it attempts to institute political and economic liberalization after nearly half a century of harsh military rule.
