YANGON – On Tuesday, Myanmar sentenced seven Muslims to prison terms ranging from two to 28 years in connection to religious violence in March that left dozens of people dead, a justice official said.
The defendants, who were spared the death penalty, were accused of murdering a Buddhist monk in the central town of Meiktila, which ignited unrest across the region, most of which targeted Muslims.
The suspects were jailed on charges which included murder, incitement to murder, arson and damage to public property, Mandalay Advocate General Ye Aung Myint told AFP by telephone from Meiktila.
The main suspect was sentenced to life imprisonment — equivalent to 20 years — and to an additional four years for other charges, he said.
One of his accomplices received a 10 year prison term for the murder, and an additional 18 years for other crimes, including arson and damage to public property.
Their family members broke down in tears at the court after hearing the verdict, defense lawyer Thein Than Oo told AFP.
"Whether they appeal depends on their relatives," he said.
According to the government, at least 44 people were killed and thousands left homeless after the wave of violence, which was apparently triggered by a quarrel in a gold shop.
Three Muslims including the gold shop owner received 14 year prison terms in April for assaulting a Buddhist customer.
So far, no Buddhists have been convicted in connection to the unrest in Meiktila, but Ye Aung Myint insisted that both sides were being treated equally.
"We are sentencing people based on evidence presented during trial, according to the law. We have no religious bias whatsoever," he said.
A total of 87 people have been arrested in the Meiktila area including approximately 38 Buddhists, he said.
Attacks against Muslims — who make up an estimated four percent of Myanmar's population — have exposed deep fractures in the formerly junta-ruled country, and cast a shadow over widely-praised political reforms.
Some monks were involved in the clashes and others, as part of a nationalist campaign, have called for a boycott of Muslim-owned shops.
President Thein Sein, who sent in the army to restore order, has vowed to deliver a strong response to the violence, which he attributed to "political opportunists and religious extremists".
This conflict comes after Buddhist-Muslim clashes in the western state of Rakhine last year left approximately 200 people dead, mostly among the Muslim Rohingya minority to whom Myanmar has denied citizenship.
The verdicts coincide with the release of a Physicians for Human Rights report detailing "horrific" violence against Muslims in Meiktila.
It quoted eyewitnesses who described a Buddhist mob — including monks assisted by security forces — hunting down and killing at least 20 children and four teachers from a Muslim school and injuring many more.
Witnesses saw the decapitation of one student and another being set on fire, according to the US-based group, which aims to prevent human rights violations through the use of medicine and science.
"Innocent children and adults were humiliated, beaten, and killed with complete impunity, which — if not addressed — will only lead to more human rights violations," said the author of the report, Holly Atkinson, who also directs the Human Rights Program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
