Anti-Muslim violence spreads in Myanmar Fresh reports from witnesses and victims of communal violence in western Myanmar indicate that tensions have spread beyond the earlier conflict between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims to target other Muslim groups. Diplomats and aid workers said recent images of a destroyed community supposedly inhabited by Rohingya Muslims actually showed an area inhabited by Kaman Muslims who have not been targeted in earlier waves of sectarian violence. Human Rights Watch last week released images of Kyaukphyu town in Rakhine state showing hundreds of ruined buildings in an area it described as being "predominantly Rohingya Muslim." In a statement, HRW suggested that mob attacks in Kyaukphyu and elsewhere were aimed at Rohingya. A senior aid official working in the region said the attacks on the Kaman Muslim community - who had lived peacefully in Kyaukphyu alongside Rakhine Buddhists - confirmed the "worst fears that this is no longer a communal conflict as the government claims but a religious conflict that is spreading to all Muslims." Violence against Muslims have been reported in areas as far away as Karen state, in eastern Myanmar, where hand grenades were recently thrown at two mosques. The initial conflict in Rakhine was triggered in June by reports of the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by Muslim youths. The government has acknowledged 112 deaths, but first-hand accounts of mob attacks on Muslim homes and refugee boats suggest far more casualties. Muslims account for about 4-6 per cent of Myanmar's population of 60m-65m. Nearly 90 per cent of the population is Buddhist. Myanmar has about 800,000 Rohingya Muslims who are largely regarded as illegal intruders from neighbouring Bangladesh, although many have lived in Myanmar for generations. The latest violence in Rakhine state, which erupted in late October, has sent nearly 30,000 refugees - mainly Muslim Rohingya - to camps already struggling to cope with more than 75,000 people displaced by violence in June. Another 6,000 or more are believed to have taken to boats to try to flee Myanmar or are camped out along the coastline with little food and water. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said conditions were deteriorating in camps near Sittwe. "With the new influx, these already overcrowded camps are being stretched beyond capacity in terms of space, shelter and basic supplies such as food and water . . . there are not enough doctors to treat the sick and wounded," the UN said. Myanmar's political leaders are reluctant to discuss the Rakhine crisis. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has drawn international criticism for her refusal to speak out on the issue, further dismayed critics when she told the BBC at the weekend she did not want to use "moral leadership" to back either side in the communal violence.