THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Burmese government has been accused of failing to protect its religious minorities after human rights campaigners claimed that entire districts of a Muslim-inhabited coastal town were destroyed in communal violence.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch released satellite images which it said showed that more than 800 buildings and houseboats had been razed in the town of Kyaukpyu, in western Burma's Rakhine state.
It said the victims of the violence were mainly Rohingya Muslims, thousands of whom have fled the area since tensions with Burma's majority Buddhist population flared anew. Officials say that at least 67 people have been killed and 95 wounded in the past week.
Long-running tensions between the two groups first flared back in June, when accusations that a group of Muslim men were responsible for the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman led to 80 deaths and 75,000 people fleeing their homes.
While the Rakhine Buddhists claim to have been the victim of pogroms themselves, the Rohingya Muslims claim to have borne the brunt of the violence. » | Colin Freeman | Saturday, October 27, 2012
