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Fwd:: Burma Security Tight After Ri



Subject: Fwd:: Burma Security Tight After Riot

fwd by::P.McCracken
In a message dated 97-03-21 13:43:27 EST, you write:

>Subj:	Burma Security Tight After Riot
>Date:	97-03-21 13:43:27 EST
>From:	AOLNewsProfiles@xxxxxxx
>
><HTML><PRE><I>.c The Associated Press</I></PRE></HTML>
>
>      RANGOON, Burma (AP) - The largest market in the city of Mandalay
>remained closed Friday and a curfew was in place following
>anti-Muslim riots earlier this week.
>      Tensions eased slightly in Burma's second-largest city, with
>fewer security patrols visible, but military guards were posted at
>several monasteries to regulate the movements of Buddhist monks who
>participated in the riots.
>      Still, some shopkeepers in Mandalay, 450 miles north of Rangoon,
>the capital, kept their stores closed Friday. Residents said
>armored personnel carriers and army foot patrols were posted at key
>points to deter further violence.
>      The Mana Muni Pagoda, which holds a revered Buddha, was swarming
>with pilgrims and monks applying tiny sheets of gold, they said.
>      The initial rioting Sunday was triggered by the rape of a
>Buddhist girl by a Muslim man, the government said. Monks and
>others vandalized mosques and Muslim-owned homes and cars. A
>similar riot Tuesday was quelled when security forces fired over
>the heads of demonstrators.
>      Two monks were wounded by ricochets in Tuesday's unrest,
>residents said. Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, told
>The Associated Press in Bangkok that at least one monk had died of
>gunshot wounds.
>      The government denied claims by a Thailand-based dissident
>group, the All-Burma Young Monks Union, that 16 monks had died in
>custody and that the deaths had triggered the riots.
>      Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962. Mandalay's
>20,000 monks are militant and took part in the 1988 anti-government
>uprising, when troops killed thousands of protesters.
>      AP-NY-03-21-97 1311EST
>      <HTML><PRE><I><FONT COLOR="#000000 SIZE=2>Copyright 1997 The
Associated
>Press.