Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:12 Mizzima News
Fresh Buddhist-Muslim violence broke out late on Monday and again on Tuesday in villages in the Bago Region, some 150 km north of Yangon, with several mosques and dozens of homes reported to have been destroyed, according to AFP.
Myanmar’s state-run television announced that Muslim religious buildings, shops and houses had been damaged.
It also confirmed on Tuesday that eight more bodies had been uncovered from the debris in Meiktila—the central Myanmar town where an innocuous incident in a gold shop last week led to the outbreak of the recent wave of Buddhist-Muslim violence—bringing the total number of dead to 40.
A state of emergency is still in force in Meiktila.
In Bago, also known as Pegu, a curfew from 6 pm to 6 am has been called as security forces act to prevent violence spreading further. Curfews have also been imposed on two other nearby towns.
The BBC reported on Tuesday that mosques and other Muslim buildings were attacked by crowds of Buddhists in towns on the road from Rangoon to Pyay, some 360 km north of Yangon.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Monday, the US embassy in Rangoon advised US citizens "to avoid travel to the Mandalay region because of escalating violence in that area".
Reports of other attacks on mosques and houses were reported on Monday in towns near Meiktila—Oh The Kone, Tatkone and Yamethin.
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For more background:
- Communal violence spreads in central Myanmar
- Meiktila ‘like a war zone’ in aftermath of rioting
- Mobs stalk the streets of Meiktila
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