Vijay Nambiar, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special adviser on Myanmar, looks at debris of the buildings destroyed during the ethnic unrest between Buddhists and Muslims in Meikhtila, about 550 kilometers (340 miles) north of Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, March 24, 2013. The top UN envoy to Myanmar toured a central city Sunday destroyed in the country's worst explosion of Buddhist-Muslim violence this year, calling on the government to punish those responsible for a tragedy that left dozens of corpses piled in the streets, some of them charred beyond recognition.(AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)
Radio
Australia
March 24, 2013
The United
Nations envoy to Myanmar has spent Sunday visiting the central town of Meiktila
destroyed by deadly communal riots.
The United
Nations envoy to Myanmar has spent Sunday visiting the central town of Meiktila
destroyed by deadly communal riots.
Vijay
Nambiar, the UN special adviser on Myanmar, met some of the estimated 9,000
people who have been displaced by the clashes.
Religious
violence in Meiktila has killed at least 32 people since Wednesday, prompting
an army-enforced state of emergency.
Mr Nambiar
visited two makeshift camps for displaced Muslims and a monastery housing
Buddhists who also fled the violence.
After
visiting the camps, Mr Nambiar said he noticed there was "very little
hatred" and that residents wanted to rebuild their lives.
"We are
prepared to help as much as we can in terms of humanitarian assistance,"
he added.
Buddhist and
Muslim leaders have spoken publicly for the first time since the violence
began, urging respect for the law and the maintenance of "community
harmony".
The
Interfaith Friendship Organisation has called on the government to protect both
communities in Meiktila, 130 kilometres north of the capital Naypyidaw.
An uneasy
peace prevailed over the town on Sunday, with shops reopening and police and
army patrols keeping order after three days of rioting which saw armed mobs -
including monks - take control of the streets.
Muslim-Buddhist
tensions
It was the
most serious religious conflict since Buddhists and Muslims clashed in the
western state of Rakhine last year, leaving at least 180 people dead and more
than 110,000 displaced.
The state of
emergency, signed by President Thein Sein, is designed to enable the army to
help restore order.
The UN, US,
Britain and rights groups have called for calm and dialogue between communities
amid fears the violence could spread.
Myanmar's
Muslims - largely of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi descent - account for an
estimated four per cent of the population of roughly 60 million, although the
country has not conducted a census in three decades.
Religious
violence has occasionally broken out in the past in some areas across the
country, with Rakhine state a flashpoint for the tensions.
Since
violence erupted there last year, thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled the
conflict in rickety boats, many heading for Malaysia.
AFP/ABC