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25 May, 2013

Neo-Nazi Denial in Myanmar: Asia Times Online

Myanmar has a newly registered Nazi party, the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), created ceremoniously in the wake of last year’s anti-Muslim ethnic cleansing in western Rakhine State. Naypyidaw has incubated the party, while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has wined and dined publicly with controversial RNDP leaders, including party chairman and member of parliament Dr Aye Maung.

Separate branches of the Myanmar state, including the executive office of President Thein Sein, the parliament, and the judiciary, have all tolerated or tacitly backed the neo-Nazi Buddhist movement known as “969”. The Buddhist fundamentalist movement, led by fascist monks such as U Wirathu and RNDP leaders like Aung Maung, himself a Bangladesh-born Rakhine, has been pivotal and yet unpunished in recent violence against Muslims that have killed hundreds and displaced upwards of 120,000.

Read the rest: Neo-Nazi Denial in Myanmar : Asia Times Online.