Burmese protest ethnic violence

SITTWE, Burma — Survivors of ethnic clashes in western Burma lashed out at the government Monday for failing to prevent violence between Muslims and Buddhists that has displaced more than 28,000 people over the past week.

The crisis, which first began in June, has raised international concern and posed one of the biggest challenges yet to Burma’s reformist President Thein Sein, who inherited power from a military junta last year.

The latest violence between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims began Oct. 21 and has left at least 84 people dead and 129 injured, according to the government. Humanrights groups believe that the true toll could be far higher.

A tense calm has held across the region since Saturday, Rakhine state spokesman Myo Thant said.

Security had been stepped up in the state, with additional police and soldiers deployed, but he declined to give details.

The priority now is to ensure those who lost homes have adequate shelter and food, Thant said.

The long-brewing conflict is rooted in a dispute over the Muslim residents’ origin. Although many Rohingya have lived in Burma for generations, they are widely denigrated as intruders who came from neighboring Bangladesh to steal scarce land.

The Rohingya also face official discrimination, a policy encouraged by Burma’s previous military regimes to enlist popular support among other groups. A 1982 law formally excluded them as one of the country’s 135 ethnicities, meaning most are denied basic civil rights and are deprived of citizenship.

Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that ruling military authorities adopted in 1989. Regime opponents have refused to adopt the name change, as have the U.S. and Britain.