AFP/Yangon
The death toll from recent communal violence in central Myanmar has risen to 43 with more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed, state media reported yesterday.
Sixty-eight people have been arrested in connection with the Buddhist-Muslim unrest, which has left 11,376 people homeless, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
In total, 163 incidences of violence have been reported in 15 townships, it added.
Previously the official death toll stood at 40.
The situation appears to have calmed since President Thein Sein on Thursday vowed a tough response against those behind the violence, which he attributed to “political opportunists and religious extremists”.
Security forces fired warning shots on Wednesday to disperse rioters. But Muslim leaders have criticised the security forces for failing to stop the attacks.
The clashes were apparently triggered by an argument in a gold shop that turned into a riot, but witnesses say the wave of violence since then appears to have been well organised.
It is the worst sectarian strife since violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year left at least 180 people dead.
Representatives from civil society, government, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and religious groups issued a joint statement on Saturday calling for respect for the country’s various religions.
“We oppose the violent attacks and threats on the lives and property of citizens and the racial and religious discrimination among citizens,” according to the statement supported by 58 people who attended a seminar in Yangon organised by the Myanmar Peace Centre.
“It is crucial to act to prevent the riots from spreading,” it added.
Meanwhile, the head of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation said in Jeddah yesterday that ministers from OIC states will meet on April 14 in Saudi Arabia to discuss deadly violence against Muslims in Myanmar.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement that a contact committee of OIC foreign ministers would gather in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.
State media in Myanmar reported yesterday that the death toll from communal violence in the centre of the country over the past 10 days has risen to 43 with more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed.
An OIC statement said Ihsanoglu addressed a contact group meeting on violence against Myanmar Muslims known as Rohingya and said the organisation was “ready to take all necessary measures and actions to deal with it”.
Ihsanoglu also pressed the government of Myanmar to “put an end to the Buddhist extremists and hate campaigns, as well as ethnic cleansing that they had launched against Muslims in the country”.
On Friday, Myanmar strongly rejected comments by the UN’s special rapporteur on Myanmar human rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the previous day that he had “received reports of state involvement in some of the acts of violence”.
Buddhist mobs have marauded through several towns in central Myanmar since religious violence erupted on March 20, prompting the government to impose emergency rule and curfews in some areas. It is the worst sectarian strife since violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced.
Myanmar’s Muslims—largely of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi descent—account for an estimated 4% of the population of roughly 60mn.