Myanmar monk accused of fuelling genocide backs junta-led vote

By 2017, Myanmar’s military had allegedly killed thousands of Muslim Rohingya, a massacre now being pursued as genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). A central figure accused of fanning the violence is one of the country’s most powerful monks, once dubbed the “Face of Buddhist Terror” on the cover of Time magazine.

That monk, known as Mr Wirathu, now awaits an election outcome that the military hopes will legitimise its rule, and which he expects will help promote his hardline Buddhist nationalism. 

“We have a lot of expectations for the new government,” he said in an interview on Jan 23 inside his monastery near the heart of Mandalay, dressed in a saffron robe worn by the South-east Asian nation’s Buddhist clergy. “We want them to be like a phoenix reborn – rising from the ashes.” 

That optimism contrasts sharply with a country mired in civil war, with as many as 90,000 people killed in fighting since the coup and an economy that collapsed under the weight of sanctions after the 2021 coup against the government of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi. 

The junta’s proxy party is expected to declare victory in the election cycle that wrapped up on Jan 25, a vote that the United Nations and many Western countries have decried as neither free nor fair, given the ban on major rivals, including Ms Suu Kyi’s party, and continued violence across parts of the country. 

For Myanmar’s junta, Mr Wirathu’s support underscores the enduring role of religious institutions as a source of legitimacy in the Buddhist-majority nation. But his adamant denials of stoking violence and the popularity of his ultra-nationalist Buddhist ideology risk sustaining the international isolation the junta hopes to overcome. 

Mr Wirathu’s hardline defence of Myanmar culture and Buddhism – which critics say tips into inciting violence – risks limiting how much the country can open up to the foreign financing and expertise needed to catch up economically with its South-east Asian neighbours. 

“Myanmar is more likely to face threats of cultural destruction as engagements with foreign nations improve,” Mr Wirathu said in the interview. “European culture, American culture and Chinese culture will influence that of Myanmar” negatively, he said. 

Mr Wirathu has rarely been in the media spotlight since his release from detention in 2021, after Myanmar’s military rulers dropped sedition charges against him months after seizing power in a coup.

He rose to international prominence during waves of anti-Muslim unrest in the 2010s, when he was a leading voice in the nationalist 969 Movement. He was later associated with the Patriotic Association of Myanmar, widely known as Ma Ba Tha, a powerful nationalist monk network that pushed for laws restricting interfaith marriage and religious conversion. 

He was first imprisoned in 2003 on incitement-related charges and released under a general amnesty in 2012. In 2020, he surrendered to the authorities after being charged with sedition over remarks critical of the civilian government. 

But those charges were dropped after the military seized power, and he was released in 2021. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing personally conferred a national award to him 2023.

Mr Wirathu said he expects a government led by the junta-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party to restore religious and cultural affairs that he says were “systematically destroyed” under the previous civilian administration.

Among other examples, he cited a plan to include sex education in school curriculum, and former US president Barack Obama kissing Ms Suu Kyi on the cheek during a 2012 visit, which he said had “set a bad example for Myanmar women”.

Critics say his movement helped fuel hostility towards Muslims, including the Rohingya minority ahead of the military’s 2017 crackdown, what it termed “clearance operations” that are now at the centre of an ICJ case bought by The Gambia. 

The firebrand monk, 57, has long rejected accusations of involvement in the crackdown, which forced more than 700,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Filings to the ICJ described Mr Wirathu as “notorious for disseminating vile anti-Rohingya hate speech”, and alleged that he travelled through Rakhine State with military escorts during the operations and incited support for genocide.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said during the interview, denying any links to military commanders and saying his visits to Rakhine between 2012 and 2017 were only humanitarian missions. “I am just an ordinary monk. I am not in a position to order the military.” Bloomberg