SLIDESHOW: The charred remains of religious violence in Myanmar

MEIKHTILA, Myanmar (AlertNet) - Few of the houses and shops that once lined a main road running through this town in central Myanmar are intact, having fallen victim to the most recent episode of religious violence. Many are mere outlines of their former selves, missing roofs and walls. Some buildings have only one surviving wall standing alone, surrounded by broken bricks, charred household items and other debris scattered on top of ashes. On March 20, what began as an argument between Muslim owners of a gold shop here and Burmese Buddhist sellers of a gold hairclip escalated into a four-day destruction spree by Buddhist mobs armed with knives, sticks and petrol. The violence left at least 43 dead, 61 injured, and thousands of Buddhists and Muslims - although the latter make up an overwhelming majority of the victims - homeless. According to the United Nations, the rioting displaced nearly 13,000 - almost 13 percent of the town’s 100,000 people.

The bloody episode has raised concerns over the nascent reforms led by the first civilian (though military-backed) government the impoverished country has seen in five decades. An uneasy calm reigned when I arrived in the riot-hit town on March 25. Many shops that weren’t destroyed were shuttered by 6 p.m. Few souls, let alone cars, ventured out after dark. Just five months ago when I last visited Meikhtila, tea shops were still crowded at 10 p.m., and cargo trucks from different parts of Myanmar stopped in and passed through this transit town until late at night.

In the surgical ward of the local hospital, with its fading blue walls and whirring ceiling fan overhead, many of those admitted after the rioting sustained injuries from knife attacks and beatings. One Muslim patient barely survived the injuries he sustained when he ventured out to look for his 28-year-old daughter. He was still there a week later, recovering from injuries to his head, arms and right eye. He was told his daughter is at a camp for displaced Muslims. He has yet to see her, however, as the people taking refuge in the camps are not allowed outside. When I visited a high school that had been turned into a camp, the authorities stopped us from talking to the displaced Muslims there and said they had to remain inside the camp for their own safety, although the site looked more like a detention centre.

A poster featuring images from nine famous pagodas in Myanmar was hung on the locked front door of this goldsmith’s shop to inform passersby of the owner’s religion. It is the only shop left standing in one row of destroyed buildings in Meikhtila market, next to the gold shop where the argument that sparked the violence began. The shop’s owner Kyaw Swar Moe and other Buddhist neighbours told me they fear more violence, especially from Muslims returning to their destroyed homes. They also said the police and the military, who were criticised for their slow response to the violence, only provide security on the main roads, leaving many residents to take security into their own hands.

Just a few minutes’ walk from the market, abuzz with buyers and sellers, were homes and businesses - and at least one mosque - that were torched, right in the centre of town.

Some of the owners were visiting their burnt homes with friends and relatives to salvage whatever they could, like these two men pictured above. Many said they lost everything because the violence had spread too fast to allow them time to protect their possessions.

These are the grounds of a madrassah in Mingalar Zayyone township in Meikhtila. It was a religious school as well as an orphanage, locals say, but broken crockery and burnt schoolbooks were the only things that hinted of its former role. Buddhist residents said a mob of monks and Buddhists from other townships burnt down the building and nearby homes in the early hours of March 21. They claimed that Muslims hidden in one of the houses taunted the Buddhists, who are from the ethnic Burman majority, saying they would “wash their feet with Burman blood”. Others spoke of Buddhists giving sanctuary to Muslim families fleeing the mob.

These are the grounds of a madrassah in Mingalar Zayyone township in Meikhtila. It was a religious school as well as an orphanage, locals say, but broken crockery and burnt schoolbooks were the only things that hinted of its former role. Buddhist residents said a mob of monks and Buddhists from other townships burnt down the building and nearby homes in the early hours of March 21. They claimed that Muslims hidden in one of the houses taunted the Buddhists, who are from the ethnic Burman majority, saying they would “wash their feet with Burman blood”. Others spoke of Buddhists giving sanctuary to Muslim families fleeing the mob.

These are the grounds of a madrassah in Mingalar Zayyone township in Meikhtila. It was a religious school as well as an orphanage, locals say, but broken crockery and burnt schoolbooks were the only things that hinted of its former role. Buddhist residents said a mob of monks and Buddhists from other townships burnt down the building and nearby homes in the early hours of March 21. They claimed that Muslims hidden in one of the houses taunted the Buddhists, who are from the ethnic Burman majority, saying they would “wash their feet with Burman blood”. Others spoke of Buddhists giving sanctuary to Muslim families fleeing the mob.

Clothes and other detritus lay strewn in the compound of what must have been the house of a well-to-do family. Three large, burnt-out vehicles began to rust, while dozens of burnt 1,000 kyat (a little over $1) notes were scattered over a thick layer of ash. One two-storey house had a barbed wire on its brick wall, but that seemed to have provided scant protection from the mob’s anger. The barbed wire was still there but the roof was gone and so were parts of the walls.