Meiktila, Myanmar – Muslims massacred

Meiktila, Myanmar

Muslims massacred: Newly released satellite photographs have revealed the extent of the sectarian violence in central Myanmar last month, in which Buddhist mobs torched hundreds of Muslim homes, killing at least 43 people. According to Human Rights Watch, the group that released the images, more than 860 buildings in the town of Meiktila were destroyed damaged or incinerated over several days. The U.N. said 12,000 people had fled their homes in the violence, which destroyed an estimated 1,300 homes. Tensions between the majority Buddhist and minority Muslim communities in Myanmar have heightened as the military has loosened its grip; last year hundreds of Rohingya Muslims were killed in a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Buddhists in the western state of Arakan bordering Bangladesh.