Why him? Baffled and grieving Muslim family mourns loss

Why him? Baffled and grieving Muslim family mourns loss

By Stuart Alan Becker   |   Friday, 04 July 2014

When bicycle shop owner U Soe Min didn't come back home from morning prayers, his wife Daw Tin Tin Kyaw started to get worried.

Daw Tin Tin Kyaw (front right) cries at the funeral of her husband, U Soe Min, who was killed in a revenge attack on July 3. (Kaung Htet/The Myanmar Times)

U Soe Min, 51, had walked out of his home above his shop for early morning prayers at Mandalay's nearby South Oh Bo Mosque on the corner of 29th and 83rd streets at about 5:30am on July 3.

Well known around the neighborhood of Buddhist, Muslim and Chinese families, U Soe Min's store specialised in used Japanese bicycles. He was known as a family man who supported charities for the poor.

Some time later, word got back to Daw Tin Tin Kyaw, his wife of 14 years, that a body had been found near the mosque. She hurried out the door with a growing sense of anxiety.

On the sidewalk by the mosque lay the body of her husband, his bicycle parked nearby. His head had been struck hard by a machete, apparently from behind.

"I cannot express my sorrow in words," she told The Myanmar Times on July 3 as she sat in her home, surrounded by relatives.

Amid the grief, there is also a sense of bewilderment among U Soe Min's relative: why would his attackers take someone who was so liked in the community?

But the attack did not target him specifically; he was just an ordinary Muslim, attending what was to be his first of five sessions of prayers for the day, who was caught as a mob sought retribution.

Several hours prior to U Soe Min's killing, a Buddhist man, U Tun Tun, was beaten to death. He and a friend were reportedly stopped on their motorcycles by a group of Muslim men.

The killings of U Tun Tun and U Soe Min followed a night of violence in which mobs targeted a Muslim-owned teashop after rumours spread that the owners had raped a Buddhist woman.

The first signs of trouble appeared at 7pm on July 1, when a mob gathered near the Sun teashop at the corner of 27th and 82nd streets in Mandalay's busy commercial district. A night of violence and arson ensued.

It was 34 hours later when U Soe Min was attacked. He lay on his side outside the mosque, a gash in his head spilling blood onto the ground. Nobody recognised him until his wife arrived.

"I had never expected such bad things would happen to my husband," Daw Tin Tin Kyaw said later that afternoon, her eyes swollen from a morning of crying.

Sitting opposite her at the family residence, U Soe Min's mother, Daw Hyu Win, 79, burst into tears. She sobbed in a high-pitched voice, overcome with emotion, tears streaming down her face.

U Soe Min's daughters, Ma Soe Yu Yu Kyaw, 13, and Ma Su Lwin Thaw, 10, looked on bewildered and uncertain. The news of their father's death was too fresh to fully comprehend.

U Soe Min's family could only say that he was a pious person, dedicated to the social welfare of others in the community. He was very friendly to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

"He had a lot of friends and was kind to everybody," his mother sobbed. "He was a people person, a very good person who respected elders."

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/07/07/why-him-baffled-and-grieving-muslim-family-mourns-loss/