Friday, November 2, 2012

Myanmar's Muslim Refugees Strain Villages


The ongoing ethnic violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state has begun taxing villages that have taken in displaced Muslims. In one town recently visited by Al Jazeera, the Rohingya who had fled their own burning village were welcomed in a neighboring town populated mostly by fellow Kaman and Rohingya, but even there some locals have been pushed into accommodating 20 people to a house. The Rohingya's refuge is tenuous, with Buddhist men one town over watching their new neighbors warily. The central government has dispatched some police and army troops to keep the peace, but amid spreading violence between the two sides, another town may be receiving refugees soon. Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay reports from western Myanmar.

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