CNN: “Tensions Continue Between Buddhists & Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar”

From CNN

By Phyo Wai Lin, Jethro Mullen and Kocha Olarn, CNN | Monday March 25, 2013

Yangon, Myanmar (CNN) — Residents of the city in central Myanmar where clashes between Buddhists and the Muslim minority killed dozens of people last week struggled to resume their daily lives on Monday with a state of emergency still in place.

Even as an uneasy calm prevailed in Meiktila, the city at the heart of the unrest, police reported fresh arson attacks on Muslim properties in other areas, showing the challenges Myanmar authorities face in reining in communal tensions in this nascent democracy.

A group of Buddhists on Saturday night torched 65 houses and religious buildings in Yemethin Township, which is about 40 kilometers south of Meiktila and not under a state of emergency, according to Lt. Col. Aung Min, a spokesman for the Myanmar Police Force.

And on Sunday night, smaller outbreaks of arson took place in other towns further south, including Okpo and Tatkon, he said.

The attacks over the weekend caused property damage, but didn’t result in any deaths, Aung Min said. That contrasts with the violence in Meiktila last week, which killed at least 32 people, according to the New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper.

In the Meiktila clashes, which were reportedly set off by a dispute between a Muslim gold shop owner and two Buddhist sellers, rioters set fire to houses schools and mosques, prompting thousands of residents to flee their homes.

Continue reading story here…

Comments are closed.