An example of a minority Muslim community suffering.

BBC today.
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blamed what she described as a "climate of fear" for exacerbating tensions between Muslims and Buddhists.

Asked about the fate of 140,000 Muslims who have been forced to leave their homes, she said that many Buddhists had also fled Burma, also known as Myanmar.

Ms Suu Kyi denied that Muslims had been subjected to ethnic cleansing.

She has been criticised for not defending Muslims since she emerged from house arrest two years ago.

Over the past two years, violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims has broken out in the state of Rakhine. There have also been clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in central Burma.

Muslims have borne the worst of the violence, with hundreds killed, often by mobs armed with knives and sticks.

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People assume too readily that on a path to democracy - that we are democratising at a fast rate - but it is not happening like that at all"

Aung San Suu Kyi
Burmese opposition leader
"I think the problem is due to the fear felt by both sides," she told the BBC's Mishal Husain.

"Muslims have been targeted but Buddhists have also been subjected to violence.

"This fear is what is leading to all this trouble."

She said tensions had also been inflamed by a worldwide perception - also felt in Burma - that global Muslim power was "very great".