Violence Threatens Burma Democracy

Sky News
June 16, 2013

Burma's transition to democracy has been threatened by serious ethnic violence between Buddhists and Muslims.

Hundreds of Muslim families have taken shelter in a heavily guarded Buddhist monastery after two days of violence in the northern Burma city of Lashio.

About 1,200 Muslims were taken to Mansu Monastery after Buddhist mobs attacked and burned Muslim homes.

The unrest in Lashio, a city about 700 km (430 miles) from Burma's commercial capital of Rangoon, shows how far anti-Muslim violence has spread in the Buddhist-dominated country as it emerges from decades of hardline military rule.

One man was killed and five people wounded in Wednesday's clashes, authorities said.

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