It’s 5 pm as this story is being posted and firebrand monk slash full-time Islamophobe Wirathu is not in jail.
Myanmar police issued an arrest warrant for the man some have called the “Buddhist Bin Laden,” just 7 days ago, setting June 4, today, as the deadline to turn himself into police.
Wirathu faces a charge of sedition under article 124(a) of Myanmar’s Penal Code, which criminalizes “any communication that attempts to bring the government into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government.” If convicted he could face up to 20 years in prison, or a fine.
Only yesterday, local media reported that Wirathu was in Yangon, though subsequent reports have him resurfacing in Kayin State, according to RFA Burmese.
Wirathu is infamous for his inflammatory comments against Myanmar’s Muslims, in particular an embattled Rohingya community that has been the subject of what the UN terms ethnic cleansing.
But he has also become more vocal against the civilian government at recent rallies, criticizing their efforts to reform the constitution and this — not the race-baiting — is where he has landed in hot water.
His stature as a monk has garnered him support among Myanmar’s hardline Buddhist monks and ultranationalists, although many in the Sangha, the country’s monastic order, are beginning to distance themselves from the controversial monk, recently canceling a scheduled meeting with him shortly after the news of his outstanding warrant broke.
However, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia director said today that the move to bring Wirathu in check is too little too late.
“If the Buddhist clergy had been doing their job and defrocked him years ago, this situation would never have descended to this point, because it was only his status as a monk that lent any sort of stature to hateful, lunatic-like ravings,” Phil Robertson told Coconuts Yangon.
“Wirathu has been spouting hatred and directly inciting violence against Muslims in speech that goes well beyond the boundaries of what is protected in international human rights conventions. He has no one to blame but himself for his predicament.”
The fact that he is a monk makes prosecuting him a difficult endeavor. On Friday, Kyaw Tint Swe, Aung San Suu Kyi’s minister of the Office of the State Counsellor, told reporters in Naypyidaw that there were “complications” because Wirathu was a member of the Sangha, which required “adjustments between religious and police regulations” to handle the case.
When Coconuts Yangon contacted Hpa-An Police Station in Kayin State, they were unable to confirm that Wirathu was in their state.
“We’ve heard the news, but we don’t have any leads about where he is,” a police officer who requested anonymity told us.
