The 969 Movement and the Meiktila Riots' Aftermath

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

The Meiktila riots followed weeks of anti-Muslim sermons in the region by the monk Ashin Wirathu, the most prominent public voice of the nationalist 969 Movement, named for the nine attributes of the Buddha, the six qualities of his teaching and the nine qualities of the monastic community. The movement framed Burmese Buddhist identity and culture as under threat from the country's Muslim minority and called for boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses, and Wirathu delivered sermons in the Meiktila area shortly before the violence broke out.

Burmese security forces were widely reported, including by Human Rights Watch, to have stood by during much of the violence rather than intervening. The 969 Movement was nominally banned by the state Buddhist hierarchy that September, but Wirathu's campaign continued the following year under a new name, Ma Ba Tha, showing that the institutional response addressed the movement's label rather than the sentiment driving it. No international body has made a formal determination specific to the Meiktila violence.