- Monk Wirathu was released from prison in Myanmar.
- He is known for his anti-Muslim beliefs.
- He has many followers in the country.
The Myanmar military released Veratu, a nationalist Buddhist monk who was notorious for his anti-Muslim tirades, after dismissing charges of sedition made by the deposed government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Monday, a military statement stated that he had been called the “face of Buddhist terror” by Time magazine for inciting religious hatred in Myanmar, but he was released after all charges were dropped.
It added that he was “under treatment in a military hospital” but did not provide details.
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Willatu from the central city of Mandalay joined the anti-Muslim 969 organization in 2001 and was imprisoned for the first time in 2003.
He was released in 2010, and two years later, he rose to fame after riots broke out between Buddhists and ethnic Rohingya Muslims in the western Rakhine State.
He founded a nationalist organization that was accused of inciting violence against Muslims and successfully lobbied for laws that made interreligious marriages difficult.
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In 2017, the highest Buddhist authority in Myanmar banned him from preaching for his tirade for a year. Facebook closed his account in 2018.
But the 53-year-old monk is still a frequent visitor to nationalist rallies, where he accused Aung San Suu Kyi’s government of corruption and was angry at his failed attempt to rewrite the military’s constitution.
He surrendered to the authorities in May 2019 on charges of attempting to bring “hatred or contempt” and “exciting dissatisfaction” to the government at the time. He was sentenced to prison at the end of 2020.
Since the military seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup on February 1, Myanmar has been in turmoil, triggering a large-scale protest movement and paralyzing the economy.
According to the Political Prisoners Aid Association, which monitors arrests and deaths, the generals responded with force and more than 1,000 people, including children, were killed in the crackdown.
Wirathu can build on the prevailing prejudice against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, where Buddhists are the majority. Rohingya Muslims are portrayed as immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many of their families have lived in Myanmar for generations.
In 2017, an attack by a Rohingya armed group on a Burmese police post triggered a brutal military crackdown that led to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh, which is now the subject of a genocide case in the International Court of Justice.
Wirathu has a large following and is considered to be in close contact with the military. But in a video posted on social media during his imprisonment, he hated the treatment of him by the military government.
The independent media group “Myanmar Now” stated that the military had “pardoned” Veratu in a campaign by nationalist supporters demanding his release. It also quoted a supporter who said he had Covid-19 and was “in poor health.”
The military general defended his seizure of power by claiming election fraud in the November 2020 elections, but cancelled the voting results in August.
Aung San Suu Kyi was detained when the general seized power and faced a series of charges, including contempt of coronavirus restrictions, corruption and violation of official secrecy laws.
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