BAMA & FRC Joint Statement On Mandalay Violence

Joint Statement on Mandalay Violence

July 3, 2014

Due to a large scale religious riot struck again in Burma by the direct result of impunity to hate speech broadcaster Wirathu’s instigations. Yet, the local government agencies are woolly prepared as the current violence is ragging on with loss of lives and destruction of private and public properties as well as places of worships. Therefore,

· Burmese American Muslims Association and Free Rohingya Campaign condemn the violence outbreak instigated by terrorist thugs that are equipped with motorcycles and club weapons.

· We stand solidarity with all Mandalay citizens and recognize the riot as a threat to Burma’s democratic values of religious freedom, social inclusion and fairness among the city population.

· Reported as of July 3rd, we mourn the loss of two innocent victims who are brutally murdered by these thugs one of whom is U Soe Min. We send our deepest condolences to victims’ families and friends

· We clearly wants to let those who incited and committed the violence know that they are fully accountable for such awful crimes. 

· The officials of Burma must clearly be understood that the world has advanced its stage from just watching to the monitoring, recording and collecting the evidence for legal actions.

· Government of Myanmar should pay the monetary reparation to all families of victims including property damages resulted from lack of will to prevent the riot. 

· The government of Mandalay and the national government must apologize to the people of Mandalay and the people of Burma as a whole for their incapability of handling the violence.

· We want the Burmese officials to be understood that failure to take action on the criminals would add more to the evidence against them in upcoming legal action by world body.

· We call on President Obama, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of free world to condemn these crimes and violence in Mandalay and demand that Government of Myanmar must provide adequate security to Muslim communities and religious sites. 

###