YANGON (Reuters) - One Rohingya Muslim man was killed and six wounded when they were attacked by a mob of Rakhine Buddhists in the capital of Myanmar’s troubled northwestern Rakhine state on Tuesday, officials said.

Tensions between minority Muslims and majority Buddhists have been running high in Rakhine since an army crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in October, but Sittwe has not seen a repeat of communal clashes that killed dozens and displaced about 140,000 people in 2012.

The seven men had traveled into Sittwe from a camp on the outskirts of the town housing people displaced in the 2012 violence, said Police Captain Kyaw Moe at Sittwe’s central police station.

“They were attacked by several people with bricks,” he said.

A local administrator from the quarter where the attack took place, Htay Win Tun, said the attackers were Rakhine Buddhist residents of Sittwe.

Most Muslim residents have been confined to camps since 2012, when whole Muslim neighborhoods were razed.

Rohingyas are denied citizenship in Myanmar, where many see them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They are usually only permitted to leave the camps - and Sittwe’s one remaining Muslim ward, penned in by checkpoints - when accompanied by security personnel.

On Tuesday, the men had been allowed to leave their camp to give statements in a case at Sittwe’s court, and had afterwards gone to see a boat they were planning to buy from a Rakhine businessman, according to a military intelligence officer in Sittwe and the nephew of one of the men.

At the boat jetty, according to a note on the incident by the United Nations Security Operations Centre in Myanmar, an argument developed.

The raised voices attracted the attention of other ethnic Rakhine men nearby, who allegedly began throwing rocks at the group, the note said.

The UN note went on to say that rumors spreading on social media about the incident were “fuelling anxieties and elevating tensions within communities in Sittwe, and elsewhere”, and that police had increased patrols in the town.

Security forces in Rakhine have been on high alert since last week, after hundreds of villagers from both Buddhist and Muslim communities fled their settlements in the north of the state after a spate of killings and amid fears of fresh attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

The United Nations has established a fact-finding mission to investigate crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the military during the counter-offensive following the October attacks. The administration of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected the allegations and opposes the mission.</s>News BREAKING: Mob Kill Rohingya Muslim in Rakhine

Army officials and police bring the victim to Sittwe General Hospital on Tuesday afternoon. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON — A mob killed a Rohingya man in the Rakhine State capital Sittwe on Tuesday, according to Sittwe district police chief Win Naung told The Irrawaddy.

The man was one of seven self-identifying Rohingya Muslims from Dapaing camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Sittwe taken by police to witness a trial in Sittwe Township court, according to the major, although details of the trial have not been released.

The group visited Ywar Gyi Mrauk quarter two kilometers from the court in downtown Sittwe during a break in the trial, he said, when they were attacked by a gang of men from the ward. One man was killed on the spot and another Rohingya man from the group was severely injured.

The injured man is receiving treatment at Sittwe General Hospital, said Lt-Col Win Naung, adding that the mob was armed, without specifying with what weapons.

The Myanmar government does not recognize Rakhine State’s Muslim minority Rohingya among the country’s official ethnic groups, and labels them as “Bengali” to suggest they are interlopers from Bangladesh.

Sittwe has restricted areas where Rohingya Muslims are forbidden from shopping at the town market and entering Rakhine quarters, and Rakhine residents are forbidden from visiting Muslim quarters without police permission.

Lt-Col Win Naung said the police were not aware the group of Rohingya had traveled to Ywar Gyi Mrauk quarter, a restricted area for Rohingya Muslims.

Sittwe residents told The Irrawaddy over the phone that the attack took place in the area on Tuesday afternoon.

U Saw Lwin, a Rohingya Muslim from Dapaing camp, said that seven or eight police officers escorted the group to the court and that the rest of the group was yet to arrive back at the camp.

“The government has the responsibility for this incident. It happened because the security was weak. We are not allowed to visit Rakhine wards without guards,” he said.

The original version of this article stated Win Naung’s position as major. He is in fact lieutenant colonel.</s>YANGON, Myanmar — A mob in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State has killed a member of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority who had been on a police-guarded trip from the displacement camp where he lives to the city that many Rohingya were forced to flee five years ago.

The dead man was one of seven given a ride Tuesday by police to the dock area of Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, to purchase some boats. The Rohingya are normally confined to the camp, and police provide rides in a closed truck to both restrict and protect them.

Police and one of the men said the group was attacked by at least 100 members of the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, whose violent assaults in 2012 drove most Rohingya residents from their Sittwe homes.</s>YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — A mob in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State killed a member of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority and injured six others who were on a police-guarded trip Tuesday from the displacement camp where they live to the city that many Rohingya were forced to flee five years ago.

The seven were given a ride by police to the dock area of Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, to purchase some boats. The Rohingya are normally confined to the camp, and police provide rides in a closed truck to both restrict and protect them.

A police officer and one of the men said the group was attacked by about 100 members of the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, whose violent assaults in 2012 drove most Rohingya residents from their Sittwe homes.

Communal tensions have not eased much since the 2012 violence, which killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain. The Rohingya face severe discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are widely regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh stealing Myanmar land, although many have been settled in the country for generations.

Violence in recent years has been more widespread in northern Rakhine, where there is a bigger Rohingya population but spread across unguarded villages. Last October, the army launched counterinsurgency operations there after the killing of nine border guards. U.N. human rights investigators and independent rights organizations charge that soldiers and police killed and raped civilians and burned down more than 1,000 homes during the operations.

The camps near Sittwe are generally safer from attack but with unhealthy conditions and little chance to make a living. The Dar Paing camp from which Tuesday’s victims came houses about 8,000 people. A small group of Rohingya remain in Sittwe in a closed-off ghetto.

“As one of the Kalars got off from the truck and was talking to another guy, some of the Rakhine Buddhists started shouting ‘the Kalars are entering the city’ and attracted the mob,” police officer Phyo Wai Kyaw told The Associated Press. “Kalar” is a widely used derogatory term referring to Rohingya.

“The Rakhine started beating the Muslims up. One of the Kalars died on the spot and six were taken right away to the hospital. The two police guarding the Muslim guys couldn’t do anything as it was a big mob. The mob even followed the injured guys to the Sittwe hospital. The hospital gate needed to be shut because of the big mob.”

Abdu Alam, 65, one of the injured men, was hit in the head by a brick. His account of the attack was similar to the police officer’s.

He said that when one of the seven people in the police truck got out to talk with the boat seller, some Rakhine men saw him and started shouting, drawing others to attack them.

“They started stoning us. Some guys grabbed wooded sticks to beat us. Things happened so fast that we were stuck in the vehicle and the mob started attacking us,” said Abdu Alam, who was able to return to his camp later from the hospital.

“The policemen tried to stop them but there were too many of them and it was impossible to stop them. Finally we all got injured and taken to the hospital by the police.”</s>A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) employee updates the records for Rohingya refugees living in a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Jammu, India, Tuesday, June 20, 2017. Facing persecution in Myanmar, thousands of members of Myanmar’s minority Rohingya community have crossed over to India over the past years. Tuesday marks the World Refugee Day. (Photo: Channi Anand | AP)

YANGON: A mob in Myanmar's western Rakhine State has killed a member of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority who had been on a police-guarded trip from the displacement camp where he lives to the city that many Rohingya were forced to flee five years ago.

The dead man was one of seven given a ride today by police to the dock area of Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, to purchase some boats.

The Rohingya are normally confined to the camp, and police provide rides in a closed truck to both restrict and protect them.

Police and one of the men said the group was attacked by at least 100 members of the Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group, whose violent assaults in 2012 drove most Rohingya residents from their Sittwe homes.</s>A mob in Myanmar's western Rakhine State has killed a member of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority who had been on a police-guarded trip from the displacement camp where he lives to the city that many Rohingya were forced to flee five years ago. The dead man was one of seven given a ride Tuesday by police to the dock area of Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, to purchase some boats.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Progress.</s>YANGON: A policeman in Myanmar fled the scene of a deadly mob attack on Rohingya Muslims that has put the troubled western state of Rakhine on edge, two police officials said on Wednesday.

A group of Rakhine Buddhists threw bricks at Rohingya men in the state capital of Sittwe on Tuesday, killing one - identified as Maung Nu, also known as Monir Ahmad, 55 - the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement.

Two police officers told Reuters an unarmed junior policeman was with the Muslim men at the time of the attack but was unable to protect them from the mob.

"We questioned the young policeman. He said he tried to stop them but he wasn't able to and ran away back to the police station," said Colonel Myo Thu Soe, spokesman for the home affairs ministry in the capital, Naypyitaw.

No one had been arrested for the attack, but an investigation was going on, he said.

Rakhine State has seen the most serious religious violence in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since the military began to end its decades of strict rule, with hundreds of Rohingya Muslims killed and more than 140,000 people displaced there in communal unrest in 2012.

Suu Kyi, who came to power last year as part of the transition from military rule, has emphasised the importance of the rule of law in solving conflict between Buddhists and minority Muslims.

Tension has been running high in the state since an army crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in October, but Sittwe has not seen a repeat of the communal clashes of 2012.

On Tuesday, seven Muslim men had travelled into Sittwe from a camp on its outskirts housing people displaced in 2012. They got into an argument with a Buddhist ethnic Rakhine man over the purchase of a boat, attracting the attention of residents who began to attack them.

"The people didn’t attack the police because he's the same race," said Lieutenant Colonel Win Naung of Sittwe district police.

Myanmar does not recognise the more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine as citizens. Many in Myanmar consider the them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Myo Thu Soe said the policeman on the scene was unarmed and inexperienced and unable to protect the Rohingya men.

Despite the fact they had a police escort, Myo Thu Soe said the Muslim men were not authorised to travel to the area.

Since the 2012 violence the city's Muslims have been confined to camps or a single city ward, unable to travel freely without a police escort.</s>One Rohingya man was killed and six wounded when they were attacked by a mob of Rakhine Buddhists with bricks in Sittwe on Tuesday, reported quoting officials.

The seven men had travelled into Sittwe from a camp on the outskirts of the town housing people displaced in the 2012 violence, the report quoted Police Captain Kyaw Moe from Sittwe's central police station as saying.

Tensions between minority Muslims and majority Buddhists have been running high in Rakhine since an army crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in October, but Sittwe has not seen a repeat of communal clashes that killed dozens and displaced about 140,000 people in 2012.</s>One Rohingya Muslim man was killed and six wounded when they were attacked by a mob of Rakhine Buddhists in the capital of Myanmar's troubled northwestern Rakhine state on Tuesday, officials said. Tensions between minority Muslims and majority Buddhists have been running high in Rakhine since an army crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in October, but Sittwe has not seen a repeat of communal clashes that killed dozens and displaced about 140,000 people in 2012.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Reuters.</s>A policeman in Myanmar fled the scene of a deadly mob attack on Rohingya Muslims that has put the troubled western state of Rakhine on edge, two police officials said on Wednesday.

A group of Rakhine Buddhists threw bricks at Rohingya men in the state capital of Sittwe on Tuesday, killing one - identified as Maung Nu, also known as Monir Ahmad, 55 - the office of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement.

Two police officers told Reuters an unarmed junior policeman was with the Muslim men at the time of the attack but was unable to protect them from the mob.

"We questioned the young policeman. He said he tried to stop them but he wasn't able to and ran away back to the police station," said Colonel Myo Thu Soe, spokesman for the home affairs ministry in the capital, Naypyitaw.

No one had been arrested for the attack, but an investigation was going on, he said.

Rakhine State has seen the most serious religious violence in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar since the military began to end its decades of strict rule, with hundreds of Rohingya Muslims killed and more than 140,000 people displaced there in communal unrest in 2012.

Suu Kyi, who came to power last year as part of the transition from military rule, has emphasized the importance of the rule of law in solving conflict between Buddhists and minority Muslims.

Tension has been running high in the state since an army crackdown in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in October, but Sittwe has not seen a repeat of the communal clashes of 2012.

On Tuesday, seven Muslim men had traveled into Sittwe from a camp on its outskirts housing people displaced in 2012. They got into an argument with a Buddhist ethnic Rakhine man over the purchase of a boat, attracting the attention of residents who began to attack them.

"The people didn’t attack the police because he's the same race," said Lieutenant Colonel Win Naung of Sittwe district police.
A mob of at least a hundred Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar, attack seven Rohingya men from Dapaing Camp for internally displaced persons, killing one and severely injuring another. The Rohingya men were being escorted by police to Sittwe's docks to purchase boats, but were attacked despite armed guards being present.