A spokesperson from the Communist Party of Burma has hit back at allegations that they were behind last month’s anti-Muslim riots, after a leading politician with links to military hardliners identified them as “instigators”. The remark comes after a senior advisor to the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), Aung Thaung, accused the group of fuelling last month’s anti-Muslim violence, which claimed over 40 lives and caused wide-scale devastation across central Burma. “At this time, the government itself is in hot water for the [riots] and since they were actually invo

More than four years after he was freed by the junta, Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner has been ordered to return the uniform he was wearing on the day of his release. Veteran democracy activist Win Tin, 83, who spend almost two decades in jail for his political activities, told AFP that he no longer had the blue shirt and sarong-like longyi, and was refusing to repay the cost of about $2. "I told them that I cannot reimburse them because I didn't steal it," said the former journalist, who is a close aide of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A fire at a Muslim school in the Burmese city of Rangoon has killed at least 13 people including children, officials say. Police officers said the fire was caused by an electrical fault and not due to any criminal activity. Most of the children escaped unharmed, reports BBC.The fire comes amid an upsurge in violence between Buddhists and Muslims.

The fire that broke out at an Islamic school on Rangoon’s 48th street in the early hours of 2 April inflamed the already tense relations between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma. As soon as the news broke that 13 boys were killed, polarised views from both communities turned the day into a war of words.The mainstream Burmese media disseminated official claims that the fire was caused by an accidental failure of the school’s electric voltage transformer. Large media outlets ran with the city’s fire department chief account, which said the fire was an accident.