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| Muslims fleeing violence in the Myanmar town of Meikhtila arrive at a stadium that the authorities have designated a safe haven. More than 20 people have been killed in Buddhist attacks on Muslims since Wednesday. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun) |
BBC News
A state of emergency has been imposed in the Burmese town of Meiktila
following three days of communal violence between Buddhists and
Muslims.
A statement announcing the decision on behalf of President Thein Sein was broadcast on state television.
He said that the move would enable the military to help restore order in the riot-hit town, south of Mandalay.
At least 20 people are reported to have been killed since the violence began, but exact figures are unclear.
A BBC reporter who has just returned from the town said he saw about 20
Muslim bodies, which local men were trying to destroy by burning.
Meiktila MP Win Thein told the BBC Burmese service that scores of mostly
Buddhist people accused of being involved in the violence had been
arrested by police.
He said that he saw the bodies of eight people who had been killed in
violence in the town on Friday morning. Many Muslims had fled gangs of
Buddhist youths, he said, while other Muslims were in hiding.
Mr Win said that that violence that recurred on Friday morning has now
receded, although the atmosphere in Meiktila remains tense.
Police say that at least 15 Buddhist monks on Friday burnt down a house
belonging to a Muslim family on the outskirts of the town. There are no
reports of any injuries.
The disturbances began on Wednesday when an argument in a gold shop
escalated quickly, with mobs setting mainly Muslim buildings alight,
including some mosques.
Fighting in the streets between men from rival communities later broke out.
Meanwhile people in the town have told the BBC of food shortages because
the main market in the town has been closed for the last five days.
Hundreds of riot police have been sent into Meiktila. They have been
seen hurriedly evacuating crowds of men and women from their burning
homes.
However they have been accused of doing little to stop the razing of
entire neighbourhoods and the accumulation of casualties from both
communities.
The BBC's south-east Asia correspondent Jonathan Head says that the
eruption of communal anger uncomfortably echoes what happened in Rakhine
state last year, where nearly 200 people were killed and tens of
thousands forced from their homes.
The conflict that erupted in Rakhine involved Buddhists and Rohingya
Muslims, who are not recognised as Burmese citizens. Scores of Rohingyas
have fled what they say is persecution in Burma in recent months.
The government has yet to present any long-term proposals to resolve
that conflict, our correspondent says, and simmering fear and mistrust
between Buddhists and the country's Muslim minorities has boiled over in
the more open political climate prevailing since the first elected
government in half a century took office two years ago.
Meanwhile residents in Meiktila have complained that police have
struggled to control groups of people on the streets armed with knives
and sticks.
Most of these men are Buddhists, police say, angered over the death of a Buddhist monk who suffered severe burns on Wednesday.
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