CNN
David Grunebaum
In March this year, the town of
Meiktila in central Myanmar was engulfed in deadly sectarian violence
that destroyed whole blocks of housing, shops and mosques.
HIDE CAPTION
Meiktila: A city divided by faith
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Hnin Ei Phyu's family fled their home during outbreak of violence in Meiktila
- The unrest pitted Muslims against Buddhist majority following shop dispute
- Myanmar's ethnic faultlines exposed as country opens up after military repression
This young Muslim woman
can't go inside her family's mosque because it was shut down after being
vandalized. And for more than a month, she had to say her prayers from
inside a shelter at a nearby sports stadium in Meiktila, a city in
central Myanmar.
Fearing for their lives,
Hnin Ei Phyu's family fled their home on March 20 during the first of
three days of rioting that tore apart this city of 100,000 people.
A wave of sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims resulted in the deaths of at least 43 people and displaced thousands more, according to the Myanmar government.
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During the clashes,
reportedly set off by a dispute between a Muslim gold shop owner and two
Buddhist sellers, rioters set fire to houses, schools and mosques,
while people were also beaten, doused with gasoline and set on fire.
Many Muslims complain
that the police stood by and did nothing during the violence. The
rioting was only stopped after President Thein Sein declared a state of
emergency and called in the military. By then thousands had fled their
homes in terror.
Meiktila's Muslims were
heavily outnumbered and suffered the bulk of the casualties. Few
remained in their homes because they were either destroyed by rampaging
mobs or it simply wasn't safe for them to stay there.
It wasn't until earlier this month that Muslims whose houses were not destroyed were able to leave the shelters and return home.
"Tears came out of my
eyes when I got back home," said Hnin Ei Phyu's mother, Thidar Hla. "I'm
extremely happy to be back home." But the 43-year old said that when
she walks down the streets of this predominantly Buddhist city, it's
clear things are not the way they were before the riots. "We (Muslims
and Buddhists) don't interact with each other the way we used too," she
said. "People are keeping a mental distance between each other."
Thidar Hla and her
extended family share a collection of rickety houses along a side street
in a modest neighborhood of Meiktila. A security post manned by police
and soldiers has been set up just a short walk away.
Similar arrangements are
in place in other parts of the city where Muslims live -- a sign of the
times since March. "There are soldiers and security guards on each end
of the street," Thidar Hla said, before adding that she hopes they can
keep her family safe.
But in areas that bore
the brunt of the rioting, little has been rebuilt more than two months
on. The blackened frames of burned down homes are all that stand in some
places.
Metal sheets that once
served as roofs now lie in pieces on the ashen ground. The government
says it will replace all of the approximately 1,600 homes that were
destroyed -- an easier task than repairing the trust between Muslims and
Buddhists.
"Right now we don't
trust them and they don't trust us," said U Aung Khin, a 50-year-old
Buddhist man. Aung Khin is married with five kids between the ages of
five and 24. He says he has numerous Muslim friends, but things have
been strained since the riots.
"After this we don't
really have to talk. It isn't necessary for us to talk with each other
at all," he said. "I'm afraid to trust them right now." He said he used
to buy meat from a Muslim butcher but won't now because he's afraid his
food might be poisoned.
Meanwhile, Thidar Hla's
family says they're playing it safe by buying their food from other
Muslims. She has also instructed her daughter to stay close to home.
She's a student at a local university that has not reopened since the
riots.
Hnin Ei Phyu says she
has several Buddhist friends at school and is hoping her relationships
with them go back to normal. But she hasn't contacted them since the
violence and they haven't been in touch with her.
We (Muslims and Buddhists) don't interact with each other the way
we used too. People are keeping a mental distance between each other.
Thidar Hla
Thidar Hla
Though Myanmar is about
90% Buddhist, Muslims have generally coexisted peacefully with the
Buddhist majority -- their children go to school together and their
parents often work together. But as with Meiktila, ethnic fault lines
have been exposed in some areas as the country emerges from decades of
military repression.
Last year, at least 110 people were killed in attacks on Muslims in western Myanmar's Rakhine State.
The Muslim Rohingya people are a stateless Muslim minority living in
Rakhine -- thought to number between 800,000 and one million -- who
claim they were persecuted by Myanmar's military during its decades of
authoritarian rule.
Myanmar does not
recognize them as citizens or as one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups
living in the country. Much of this is rooted in their heritage in East
Bengal, now called Bangladesh.
Though many Rohingya
have only known life in Myanmar, they are viewed by the Buddhist
majority as intruders from across the border.
Across the country, a budding movement known as "969"
has been spreading anti-Muslim sentiment by encouraging Buddhists to
avoid Muslim-run businesses. "969" stickers are increasingly found in
businesses and taxis in Yangon, the country's largest and most
ethnically diverse city.
Police recently stepped
up patrols in Yangon following the Meiktila clashes, though serious
fighting has yet to spread there. However, in several communities within
100 kilometers (62 miles) of Yangon, Buddhist mobs reportedly
vandalized mosques as well as Muslim businesses and houses.
The wave of religious
unrest has prompted the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) urge Burmese authorities to allow a delegation to visit Myanmar to
discuss the issue -- a request the authorities in Naypyidaw have so far
rebuffed.
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