The Tibet Sun has reported on April 5, 2013, Myanmar Muslims kill 8 Buddhists in Indonesia. Police have said that a group of Myanmar Muslims beat eight Buddhists to death at an Indonesian detention center on Friday after they heard about communal violence in their homeland. The Muslims attacked the Buddhists, who were also from Myanmar, in the early hours at the Belawan Port immigration detention center in North Sumatra province.
The violence began after the detainees learned of recent Buddhist-Muslim violence in Myanmar which has resulted in at least 43 people dead and many Muslim homes and mosques destroyed. Local police chief Endro Kiswanto said, “They managed to see some photos of the violence in Myanmar, including buildings on fire, and we believe that’s when the violence broke out." When police arrived at the detention center in the early hours of Friday morning, eight Buddhist men were dead and 15 others were injured.
Heru Prakoso, a North Sumatra police spokesman, has said that the detainees fought with
pieces of sharp wood. He also said that those killed were “beaten to death with wooden objects." There were 280 asylum seekers and illegal fishermen from Myanmar being held in the detention center. Boats which carry asylum seekers who are fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar are increasingly ending up in Indonesia. Many of the asylum seekers who arrive face a long time in detention as they await UN assessment for refugee status. There were more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed in last month’s communal violence in Myanmar.
