Myanmarese look at posters of death bodies allegedly killed by Muslims

Visitors to the Ma Soe Yein monastery gather to look at posters displaying the “969” logo, right, photos of dead bodies – allegedly Buddhists killed by Muslims, center, and detained illegal Bangladeshi nationals, left, outside the office of Buddhist monk Wirathu in Mandalay, Myanmar on March 28, 2013. 969 began to coalesce as a political movement after Buddhist-Muslim riots in western Rakhine state last June and October. More than 200 were killed, 70 percent of them Muslim. Over 125,000 remain homeless.

A man holds a DVD with sermons of Buddhist monks promoting the 969 movement at a DVD shop in the Kyimyindaing market in Yangon, Myanmar on April 4, 2013. Buddhist monk Wirathu says, “969 doesn’t accept terrorism.” But human rights groups have documented a pattern to the anti-Muslim violence of the past year. Human Rights Watch says that before the October violence in Rakhine, monks distributed anti-Muslim pamphlets with rhetoric similar to 969’s and political parties advocated ethnic cleansing. The Burma Campaign U.K. found anti-Muslim leaflets, without the 969 logo, that were circulated in Meikhtila before the March attacks, and some monks and journalists say 969 graffiti, stickers and speeches accompanied them.

In this April 4, 2013 photo, Aye Aye Khine, right, sits beneath two 969 logos she hangs above her meat shop at the Kyimyindaing market in Yangon, Myanmar. She made the signs herself, copying them from the cover of a 969 DVD a friend gave her. “Before I didn’t think about whether people were Buddhist or Muslim,” she says. “After listening, I learned how to keep the Buddhist faith.” Business is up 50 percent since she posted the signs a month ago, she says. <AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe>