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Burma-unrest : Burma cancels Buddhi
- Subject: Burma-unrest : Burma cancels Buddhi
- From: moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 21:24:00
Subject: Burma-unrest : Burma cancels Buddhist monk exams following unrest
Burma-unrest : Burma cancels Buddhist monk exams
following unrest
RANGOON, March 28 (AFP) - Burma has cancelled
exams for
monks scheduled next week in Rangoon and the
northern city of
Mandalay following anti-Moslem communal unrest,
religious
sources said Friday.
The authorities postponed plans for hundreds of
monks to take
oral examinations and recitations at Buddhist
universities and have
not set a new date for the events, the sources said.
Analysts said the move appeared to be aimed at
preventing
further outbreaks of anti-Moslem violence which
has been
committed by Buddhist monks across the country
over the past
two weeks.
"They seem to have postponed them because of the
sensitive
situation at this point and I think the exams
will be held at a more
appropriate time," one Rangoon analyst said.
Rangoon was calm Friday as army trucks kept up a
conspicuous
presence outside the capital's main mosques and
other Moslem
properties. No anti-Moslem incidents were
reported during the day
or the previous evening.
"There is more security around mosques so people
are starting to
be more careful about what they are doing," said
one observer.
Some 100 monks were reportedly detained last
weekend after an
attack on a mosque frequented by Indonesian
embassy staff.
On Thursday, while tensions appeared to have
abated in
Rangoon, informed sources said that unrest had
broken out in
Prome, 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the north,
where three
mosques had been attacked last week.
At least 17 mosques and other Moslem properties
have been
attacked in Rangoon since last weekend after
unrest spread from
Mandalay, sparked by the alleged attempted rape
of a Buddhist
girl by a Moslem man.
A night curfew in Mandalay, where a dozen
mosques have been
attacked since the unrest began, appeared to
still be in place on
Friday.
The Burmese government has blamed the unrest on
agitators bent
on sinking Burma's bid to join the Association
of Southeast Asian
Nations, whose membership includes the majority
Moslem
Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.