YANGON, Myanmar
Police have shot and killed a man in a camp for Rohingya Muslims who were displaced by religious violence in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, according to local media.
A statement from the office of President Thein Sein said that police fired at the man after he tried to attack them with a knife.
Officers arrived at the camp on the outskirts of Sittwe, the state capital, after a group of people tried to attack two brothers accused of theft, The Myanmar Times reported Saturday.
The crowd set on the brothers with rocks and knives, state media added, forcing officers to fire warning shots into the air.
A London-based rights group said Friday that police “killed one Rohingya and seriously injured two others” during the clash.
Fifteen people were also arrested during the operation, which involved over 100 police officers, the statement said.
Reports of low-level violence between security forces and internally displaced Rohingya Muslims in the camps around Sittwe have become common since riots there in mid-2012.
Myanmar’s treatment of the persecuted Rohingya minority is under the spotlight this weekend as the country hosts a series of high-level meetings involving foreign ministers.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Myanmar for the talks, has come under pressure from U.S. Senators and rights groups to highlight growing abuses against Muslims during his visit.
Myanmar began liberalizing in 2010 following five decades of military rule. But the democratic reforms brought in by Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government have been threatened by waves of violence between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims.
Up to 280 people have died and 140,000 been displaced in clashes, with Muslims including the Rohingya making up most of the victims.
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