Agitators try to spread sectarian unrest to Yangon : politicians

Two cars drove through Yangon neighbourhoods with large Muslim populations after midnight, their passengers shouting, "Mosques have been destroyed," said Phyu Phyu Thin, a local resident and member of parliament for the National League for Democracy opposition party.

 

Muslim men came out of their houses armed with swords and sticks in response, she said.

 

"Some of the men attacked our group when we went to the district to explain that no mosques had been destroyed in Yangon," Phyu PhyuThin said.

 

More than 30 police were dispatched early Monday to the Mingalar Market neighbourhood in central Yangon, which has a large concentration of Muslim residents, to secure the area.

 

Tensions have been rising between Myanmar's Buddhists and Muslims, who account for less than 5 per cent of the population.

 

Fighting broke out Wednesday between Buddhists and Muslims in the town of Meiktila, in the central Mandalay region.

 

The clash was reportedly sparked by an argument when a Buddhist couple tried to sell a hair pin to a Muslim gold merchant.

 

Violence spread over several days to involve both communities, leaving more than 32 people dead and several mosques and scores of shops and houses destroyed or damaged by fire.

 

The government declared a state of emergency in the central region Friday.

 

Presidential Office Minister Aung Min, who visited Meiktila Sunday, said he was concerned that agitators were deliberatelystoking tensions.

 

Last year, fighting between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine left at least 180 people dead and more than 100,000homeless.

 

The violence, which broke out in June, was directed mainly against Muslim Rohingyas, a minority group with cultural links to Bangladesh who are deprived of Myanmar citizenship under a 1982 law.