Tourists trickle into violence-hit western Myanmar

By Todd Pitman
Published November 26, 2012 5:00am ET
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Tourists trickle into violence-hit western Myanmar
In this photo taken on Nov. 8, 2012, Ethnic Rakhine people take refuge at a monastery in Mrauk-U, Rakhine state, western Myanmar. Mrauk-U itself has been spared the bloodshed between the Buddhist Rakhine and the Muslim Rohingya that has scarred other parts of Rakhine state. It is calm, and for foreign tourists, safe. But just 10 kilometers (six miles) to the south, there is a village where civilians were reportedly beheaded in a massacre last month that saw women and children slaughtered, then buried in mass graves. Across western Myanmar's Rakhine state, the United Nations is distributing emergency supplies of food and shelter to terrified villagers who have fled burning homes. A nighttime curfew is in force. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win) | Khin Maung Win

MRAUK-U, Myanmar (AP) — It was dusk in a corner of Myanmar recently shaken by some of the bloodiest sectarian violence in a generation, and a dozen Canadian tourists climbed to the top of a grassy hill, cameras ready to capture the sweeping view.

Moss-covered pagodas rose from foggy hilltops all along the horizon, their bell-shaped silhouettes dark against the blue sky. Birds flitted through lush treetops. A small throng of children played on a dirt road nearby.

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