RANGOUN: A Myanmar beauty queen says she was stripped of her pageant title after posting a graphic video condemning Muslim Rohingya militants of driving joint violence in Rakhine state, an inconsistency fraught with controversy in the mainly Buddhist country.
Myanmar's army is pointing the finger at waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya in the far west, where more than half a million of the Muslim minority have fled across the border to Bangladesh since August 25.
In the face of intense global denunciation, Myanmar authorities have steadfastly defended the security operation as a legitimate crackdown on Rohingya terrorists who attacked police posts last month.
The clash has curdled religious tensions inside Myanmar, fanning Buddhist nationalism, and hatred against the Rohingya that has been steeping for years.
In a video posted on her Facebook last week, Miss Grand Myanmar Shwe Eain Si accused the Rohingya terrorists of leading a "media campaign" to trick the world into thinking "they are the oppressed".
Shots of Shwe Eain Si speaking to the camera were interspersed with graphic images of people with bloody gashes across their faces, nude babies and screenshots from videos posted by the militant group, known as ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army).
On Sunday the firm behind the beauty pageant announced Shwe Eain Si had been stripped of her title for breaching contract rules, in a statement that did not mention the video on Rakhine.
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