Myanmar lifts emergency order in riot-hit areas

Myanmar only recently emerged from a half-century of isolation and brutal military rule.

The struggle to contain tensions between the country's Muslim and Buddhist communities – which has killed more than 250 people in the last year – is proving another major challenge for Thein Sein's reformist administration as it attempts to chart a path to democracy.

Many of those targeted have been ethnic Rohingya Muslims, who have lived in Myanmar for generations but are still viewed by many Buddhists as foreign interlopers from Bangladesh. Human Rights Watch accused the government in an April report of an "ethnic cleansing" campaign.

It said officials, community leaders and Buddhist monks organized and encouraged mobs to target the minority group, sometimes with the backing of security forces.

Robertson stood by the report's findings Saturday, and disputed Thein Sein's allegations of a smear campaign against the government.

"Thein Sein's dismissals of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state have zero credibility," he said. "Don't forget this is the man who last year tried to persuade the visiting U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to take all the Rohingya out of Burma. Thein Sein's self-appointed investigation commission didn't even bother to address accountability for the violence in 2012, and he's continually looked the other way as his security forces have continued their abuses and covered up their atrocities against the Rohingya."

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/myanmar-lifts-emergency-order-in-riot-hit-areas-2/