Myanmar president calls for efforts to avoid recurrence of riots

Myanmar President U Thein Sein has urged the Interfaith Friendship Group in the country to make efforts to avoid the recurrence of riots and violence in the nation, while maintaining the country's dignity and protecting people,official media reported Sunday.

Meeting with the group at Yangon Regional Government Office Saturday, U Thein Seinurged the group to cooperate with the government and take lessons from the past incidents and ensure they would not happen again.

"Only mutual respects and trust, understanding and tolerance for ensuring the freedom of religion could bring a peaceful coexistence," he said, calling on each and every citizen to pay mutual respect on different beliefs and to fight against religious hatred.

He stressed the need to oppose those trying to fuel the conflicts by using religion as a political tool in their interest and he called for legal action against these people.

He said the process of state building, nation building and peace building is in progress in Myanmar, saying that it is time now when the country is on the track to shaping a new national identity acceptable by all citizens, all national races and all religions to be able to build a peaceful and harmonious society.

Noting that low educational standard and economic difficulties were attributed to conflicts, U Thein Sein vowed that his government was striving to implement social and economic reforms so as to address the problems and pledged to protect freedom of religion and freedom of expressionso that democracy in Myanmar will flourish.

During the past two years, a series of communal conflicts broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine state, Meikhtila in Mandalay region and Lashio in Shan state.