Mandalay tense, 8 mosques vandalise

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Subject: Mandalay tense, 8 mosques vandalised (Indian News paper) 


Mandalay tense, Mosques razed as unrest continues

Rangoon, March 20: Burmese police fired over the heads of crowds in the 
northern city of Mandalay in an attempt to disperse them as Buddhist- 
Muslim religious unrest continued, informed sources said on Thursday. 
Withness reached by telephone from Rangoom said there were no known 
casualities in the incidents which took place in Wednesday.
Trouble started on the weekend when Buddhist monks attacked mosques and 
Muslim-owned property in apparent retribution for an alleged rape attempt 
on a Buddhist girl by one or more Muslim men. The eye withnesses and 
travwllers returning to the capital from Mandalay estimated that the 
number of monks involved in the unrest had grown from several hundred to 
several thousand. They said tension was mounting.
The latest information indicated that 8 mosques had s0 far been 
vandalised and 18 motor vehicles damaged. Several tourist agencies in 
Rangoon said they had cancelled tours to Mandalay for the time being. On 
wednesday an informed source said 5 cities with large Muslim populations 
had been placed under security alart. Some 85 per cent of Burma's 
population is Buddhist, while Muslim account for about 3.9 per cent, 
including some 250,000 in Mandalay.
The police and Army forces were deployed in Rangoon, Mandalay, Sittwe in 
Arakan state, Bassein in Irrawaddy division and Moulmein in Tennasserim 
division, the source said. Buddhist monasteries in the Mandalay area were 
signalling back and forth using hollowed-out pieces of wood or drums, 
apparently to coordinate their activities,the informed sources reported.

The Asian Age news paper. New Delhi