22/08/2013 14:15
U.N. rights envoy says mob attacked his car in Myanmar
A 200-strong mob attacked a U.N. human rights envoy's car in central Myanmar this week, kicking windows and doors and shouting abuse, as he arrived to investigate Buddhist-led violence against Muslims, the envoy said, according to Reuters.
Tomás Ojea Quintana, a U.N. special rapporteur on human rights, said the attack occurred on Monday at about 10.30 p.m. in Meikhtila, where a wave of anti-Muslim riots in March killed at least 43 people, destroyed hundreds of homes and displaced thousands.
The attack on Ojea Quintana dramatically underscores the challenges Myanmar's reformist government faces in containing mob violence and pacifying long-simmering tensions in one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries.
"The fear that I felt during this incident, being left totally unprotected by the nearby police, gave me an insight into the fear residents would have felt when being chased down by violent mobs during the violence last March," he told reporters late on Wednesday.
He made the comments at the end of a 10-day visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, in which he toured regions worst affected by repeated anti-Muslim violence in the Buddhist-majority country, where 49 years of military rule ended in March 2011.
In some regions, signs have emerged of ethnic cleansing, and of impunity for those inciting it, threatening the country's historic democratic transition.