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Agence France-Presse

Scores of Buddhists ransacked a mosque in central Myanmar forcing Muslims to seek refuge overnight in a police station after a dispute between neighbours spilled into religious violence, officials and residents said on Friday.
Bouts of anti-Muslim violence have left scores dead across the country since 2012 and the febrile atmosphere poses serious challenges for Aung San Suu Kyi’s new government.
The violence erupted on Thursday afternoon as a mob of around 200 Buddhists rampaged through a
Muslim area of Thuye Tha Mein village in Bago province following an argument between neighbours over the building of a Muslim school.
“It started when a Muslim man and a Buddhist women started to argue and then people came to fight him,” said Hla Tint, the village administrator. “Parts of the mosque were destroyed ... they also destroyed the fence of the Muslim cemetery,” he added.

Around 70 Muslims, including children, sought shelter in a police station overnight on Thursday, he said, adding there were no serious injuries and peace had been restored.
Police and the secretary of the mosque confirmed the damage, while a Muslim resident said his community of around 150 people is now living in fear.
Myanmar’s hardline monks forced to adapt to new political landscape after junta loses power
“We had to hide as some people were threatening to kill Muslims. The situation has never been like this before,” said Tin Shwe OO, 29, adding his family stayed at the small police station overnight.
“I do not dare to stay at my house. For the safety of my family, I want to stay somewhere else for about a week or so.”
Outbreaks of deadly violence have roiled the country threatening to unpick democratic gains since the army began loosening its stranglehold on the country in 2011.
The worst violence struck central Myanmar and western Rakhine State which is home to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, tens of thousands of whom still languish in displacement camps after rioting.

Buddhist nationalists vigorously oppose moves to recognise the Rohingya as an official minority group, instead labelling them “Bengali” – shorthand for illegal migrants from the border with Bangladesh.
Democracy champion Suu Kyi, who is currently visiting Thailand, has come under fire for failing to speak up for the Rohingya – although she recently caused surprise by using the incendiary term during a visit to Myanmar by America’s top diplomat.
Myanmar’s Suu Kyi ‘angry at being interviewed by Muslim’
Religious tensions pose a unique challenge to the new government and to Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate once garlanded for her fight for rights for all.
Her party is dominated by ethnic Bamar Buddhists and did not field any Muslim MPs in the election last year that drove it to power.
Hardline monks – known as the Ma Ba Tha – are accused of stoking violence and tensions with hate speech.


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Myanmar monks ransack mosque as religious violence flares up again

The destroyed mosque at Thuye Tha Mein village in Bago province, Myanmar, on Friday. Photo: AFP

Ali Ahmed, a Muslim religious leader, shows the damage inside the ransacked mosque at the Thuye Tha Mein village of Waw township in Bago province, Myanmar, 24 June 2016. Over 70 Muslim villagers took refuge overnight at police station as a mob of around 200 Buddhists ransacked a mosque and two buildings owned by a local Muslim man after a dispute between neighbours turned into religious violence at the afternoon of 23 June 2016

A Muslim man talks on a mobile phone inside the destroyed mosque at Thuye Tha Mein village in Bago province on June 24, 2016, after violence erupted on June 23 when a mob of around 200 Buddhists rampaged through the area following an argument between neighbours over the building of a Muslim school. Scores of Buddhists ransacked a mosque in central Myanmar forcing Muslims to seek refuge overnight in a police station after a dispute between neighbours spilled into religious violence, officials and residents said on June 24

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Uniting a divided community poses a serious challenge for Suu Kyi’s fledgling government


Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar monks ransack mosque as religious violence flares up again

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Uniting a divided community poses a serious challenge for Suu Kyi’s fledgling government

Uniting a divided community poses a serious challenge for Suu Kyi’s fledgling government