BURMA | Vilencia senctaria between Muslims and Buddhists Tragedy tests Rohingya

The NGO Human Rights Watch has urged the Burmese government to stop "immediately" the resurgence of sectarian violence that spans western Burma between Muslims and Buddhists which has caused at least 67 deaths in less than a week. The international organization has published satellite photos where you can see the complete destruction of a neighborhood in the city of Kyaukpyu , where the population resided in the Muslim Rohingya ethnic group . In the snapshots can be counted more than 800 buildings destroyed and houseboats. "Unless the authorities begin to address the root causes of this violenci to, only this conflict is likely to get worse, "he said in a statement Phil Robertson , deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia.

Government figures

State television reported last night that the Government had revised down the estimated death toll since unrest regrowth on Sunday to leave at 67 dead, 95 injured and nearly 3,000 homes destroyed. Spokesman Rakhine State (formerly Arakan), Win Myaing , where clashes occur, initially recorded in 112 deaths among Muslims and Buddhists. In an attempt to contain the clashes, officials kept the curfew in the village of Mrauk U and Minbya , the two places where the violence began then spread to other locations in this region located about 600 kilometers northwest Yangon , the former Burmese capital. The official spokesman said the central government had given the troops the order of the day and night patrolling six locations and dissolve through the use of force any public group consists of more than five people. The refugee agency UN said in a statement that at least 2,500 people of Rohingya have fled their homes in the region to go to the refugee camps in western Burma .

Stateless

These riots followed which broke out on May 28 in the same region and caused over several days at least 88 dead, most of the Rohingya Muslims. The trigger for that first wave of violence, during which 2230 houses were also destroyed and some 100,000 fled the villages, was the discovery of the body of a Buddhist woman raped and murdered by three Muslims. Some 800,000 Rohingya Muslims living in Burma , mostly in Rakhine, although authorities in this predominantly Buddhist country do not recognize citizenship and keep coming from neighboring Bangladesh. This community is not recognized stateless in Bangladesh , where some 300,000 Rohingyas are crammed into refugee camps.