Muslim Return Home to Divided Communities in Myanmar

Seven Muslims have been jailed for their role in religious clashes in the Burmese town of Meiktila in March. One man was jailed for 34 years for killing a monk.

At least 43 people - mostly Muslim - died in the violence that erupted after an argument at a Muslim-owned shop. So far no Buddhists have been convicted in connection with the deadly clashes.

And an atmosphere of anti-Muslim sentiments continues to pervade much of Myanmar.

Thidar Hla and her family are back on the block they've lived on for almost their entire lives.

They spent more than a month in a stadium turned into a shelter for Muslims displaced by the riots that tore apart Meikhtila.

“Tears came out of my eyes when I got back home.”

The family fled their home during the first of three days of rioting that started on 20 March.

It started with a quarrel in a gold shop between 2 Buddhist customers and the Muslim owners.

Soon after the argument a Buddhist monk was killed, sparking further unrest across Burma.

Buddhist monks were involved in the violence saying that Muslims hacked and burned on the streets.

A Buddhist nationalist movement led by monks, calling themselves ‘969’ spearheaded the anti-Muslim sentiments through hate speech and propaganda.

The violence killed at least 43 people and displaced nearly 13,000 Muslims and Buddhists.

Muslims were outnumbered, suffered higher casualties and most of them stayed in shelters through the month of April... as it was not safe for them to go back to their neighbourhoods.

But now, Muslims and Buddhists whose houses were not destroyed have left the shelters and returned home.

“There are soldiers and police standing guard right near here. So I can sleep well.”

Special security posts have been set up in neighborhoods where Muslims live.

But while the government is taking steps to keep the peace, relationships between the Buddhists and Muslims have not returned to normal.

“When they see us, they don't seem to want to talk to us or interact with us."

“In the past we’d chat – there was no issue but after the riots, there’s nothing left to talk about,” says Aung Khin, a Buddhist resident.

Aung Khin has lived in Meiktila his entire life. He says he has Muslim friends but since the riots their relationship has been strained.

“Now we can no longer trust each other. They don’t trust us too. In the past we used to work together we’d buy stuff from their shop and they’d sell; we’d trade with each other as friends. But after the riots we lost the trust between us.”

There are people who say they're getting along with their Muslim and Buddhist neighbors the same as they did before the riots but those stories seem to be more the exception than the norm.

Thidar Hla’s and Aung Khin’s families make sure to buy their food from shops owned by someone from the same religion as them.

“I was able to do freely whatever I wanted before. But now I don’t really have that freedom anymore,” says Hnin Ei Phyu, Thidar Hla’s daughter.

The government says it will replace all of the houses that were destroyed in the violence – but little has been rebuilt. And those who do not have houses to return to, remain in camps.

In Meikhtila communal tensions still run deep. A state of emergency is still in place and will be for the next few months.