AFPNovember 1, 2012, 3:29 am
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YANGON
(AFP) - Communal bloodshed in western Myanmar risks developing into
"armed terrorist acts", the government said Wednesday, after security
forces were targeted by homemade firearms in deadly fighting.
Myanmar
said 180 guns were seized during the new wave of clashes between
Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine state, which has killed dozens,
displaced tens of thousands and seen whole neighbourhoods razed.
It said several people had been arrested on suspicion of making the weapons.
"The
clashes between two communities are likely to turn from normal unrest
to armed terrorist acts after the security forces were attacked with
handmade guns," the government said, in a statement on the president's
website.
Decades-old
animosity between Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims exploded in
June after the apparent rape and murder of an ethnic Rakhine woman
sparked a series of revenge attacks.
The
latest clashes have caused more than 32,000 people to flee their homes
this month, the government said, adding to the 75,000 people already
crammed into overcrowded camps after the earlier fighting.
Myanmar
said both local and international organisations were "involved" in the
conflict, without elaborating on their identities or exact role.
"In
order not to face continuous incidents that harm the lives and
stability of the people, the government will take serious action against
those who
incited the people to fight," it said.
The
toll from the clashes, which began on October 21, stands at 89 people
killed, with 136 injured and more than 5,000 homes reduced to ash in a
wave of arson.
Many
of the casualties suffered gunshot wounds and authorities have admitted
to shooting into crowds of rioters as the fighting intensified.
Authorities have struggled to end the violence, which flared again on Tuesday in renewed clashes that saw police shoot and
kill one ethnic Rakhine, according to a government official who declined to be named.
Myanmar's
800,000 stateless Rohingya, viewed by the United Nations as among the
most persecuted minorities on the planet, are seen by the government and
many Burmese as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.
They face discrimination that activists say has led to a deepening alienation from Buddhists.
But other Muslim communities in Rakhine have also been swept up
in the latest violence, including the Kaman, one of Myanmar's officially recognised ethnic groups.
The
United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday said food, water and medical
help are in short supply at camps in western Myanmar that are "stretched
beyond capacity".
It raised concerns about getting aid to an unknown number of displaced people in remote areas.
The
unrest sparked an exodus of thousands, with many travelling in boats
towards the state capital Sittwe in hopes of finding shelter at the
camps on the coast near the outskirts of the city.
Bangladesh
police and a Rohingya advocacy group on Wednesday said about 130 people
were missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees who were headed
for Malaysia sank off Bangladesh.
Since
the unrest erupted in June, Bangladesh has turned away boatloads of
fleeing Rohingya, drawing criticism from the United Nations.
Myanmar
has rejected an offer by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to
open talks aimed at quelling the conflict, the bloc's Secretary-General
Surin Pitsuwan told reporters in Malaysia on
Tuesday.
He had earlier warned that the bloodshed could "radicalise" the Rohingya and destabilise the "entire region", according to reports.
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