S.K. Tjahjono*

In early June, amid exciting news of Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's overseas visits, both Burmese and the international community were stunned by an outbreak of violence in Arakan or Rakhine, a western Burmese state along the border with Bangladesh. The clash between Arakan Buddhist and Rohingya Muslims was ignited by the alleged rape and murder of an Arakan Buddhist woman by three Muslim Rohingya men.

The communal clash