17th October 2014
M-Media
Reported by Zar Ni
It was observed that a routine street fight case happened in Block 2, Kyaung Gone Township in Ayeyarwady Region was being spread as hate speech against race and religion.
In fact the case was that a quarrel between Yarzar Ko, a Muslim, and Kyaw Zay Yar brothers, two Buddhists, had transformed to a fight when two brothers started to beat Yarzar Ko and so, he stabbed them. As a result, Kyaw Zay Yar got minor injury while Yarzar Ko was injured seriously.
Kyaw Zay Yar brothers were still in Kyaung Gone but Yarzar Ko was arrested in Pathein Police Station as well as his father was detained there.
Local residents were worried about the potential uprising of atrocities because the case of a usual street fight among youths was intentionally fabricated and mongered as hate speech in social media in order to trigger religious violence.
On 6th October, 2013, two houses and one hut of Kyaung Gone Muslims were set fire based on the rumor that a girl was raped.
Myanmar Ministry of Internal Affairs has not taken any action yet to that hundreds of Facebook users including 969 ( Ma Ba Tha) leading Buddhist monk Wirathu, social media pages named Ma Ba Tha and Nay Myo Wai, the chairman of a political party called Diversity and Peace have spread hate speech constructed on purposely fabricated stories of usual criminal cases for years triggering racial and religious tensions.
Photo Caption – This fabricated hate speech has already share by nearly 130 Facebook users and the authorities have not stated officially anything yet on this case for over 9 hours
