Burma hit by sectarian riots
MEIKHTILA, BURMA— Mobs set fire to Muslim homes and mosques in frenzied sectarian rioting in a town in central Burma, leaving at least 20 people dead and more than 6,000 homeless amid fears Friday that the latest bout of Muslim-Buddhist bloodshed could spread.
President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in Meikhtila in an announcement broadcast on state television Friday. The declaration allows the military to take over administrative functions in and around the town.
The government’s struggle to contain the unrest is another challenge for Thein Sein’s reformist administration as it attempts to chart a path to democracy after nearly half a century of military rule that once crushed all dissent.
The scenes in Meikhtila, where homes and at least five mosques have been torched, were reminiscent of sectarian violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya that shook western Rakhine state last year, killing hundreds of people and driving more than 100,000 from their homes.
The clashes in Meikhtila are the first reported in central Burma since then.
Troubles began Wednesday after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers.
A Buddhist monk was among the first killed, inflaming tensions that led a Buddhist mob to rampage through a Muslim neighbourhood.
Violence continued Thursday, and by Friday, Win Htein, a lawmaker from the opposition National League for Democracy, said he had counted at least 20 bodies. He said 1,200 Muslim families have fled their homes and taken refuge at a stadium and a police station.