Myanmar ( Muslims in Myanmar barricade village as attacks spread ) Buddhists Clash with Muslims

Muslims in Myanmar barricade village as attacks spread

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WIN KITE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Three Muslim men peered over a bamboo fence built recently to fortify their village in central Myanmar. They gazed across dry rice paddies towards a nearby Buddhist community, looking for rising dust, a sign of an approaching mob. It was a false alarm. But a day earlier, on Wednesday, about 100 Buddhists armed with sticks had gathered outside the fence, threatening to burn the village and kill them, said the villagers of Win Kite, about a two-hour drive from Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. Police foiled that attack. But Muslims were taking no chances after four days of mob violence led by Buddhist monks in Meikhtila in March killed 44 people, mostly Muslims, and touched off a wave of unrest in central Myanmar that threatens to derail the country's nascent economic and political reforms. "We have a plan to defend ourselves if they come and attack us," said Kin So, adding that many in Win Kite had armed themselves with clubs and swords as a precaution for when troops and police patrolling the area pull out. The five-foot (1.5 meter) fence encircling Win Kite is a vivid illustration of divisions between Myanmar's Muslims and majority Buddhists that are beginning to cause problems elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Indonesian police said on Friday they had foiled a plan to attack Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta, arresting two men late on Thursday and seizing explosives. A spokesman told reporters the suspects had planned the attack in protest at the treatment of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. At least 192 people, mostly Rohingya, were killed last year in clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine State. In April, eight people died when Muslim and Buddhist refugees clashed at an Indonesian immigration center. On April 30, one man was killed in riots in Oakkan and nearby villages just 100 km (60 miles) north of Yangon, when a Muslim woman bumped into an 11-year-old novice monk, who dropped his alms bowl, damaging it. The authorities are aware that such mundane incidents can spiral out of control in the present environment. A district officer said a measure that stops crowds from gathering had been imposed in Taikkyi, a town near Oakkan, as a precaution.