Story highlights

Communal violence in Rakhine State has killed dozens and left thousands homeless

The attack that appears to have set off the unrest involved the rape and killing of a woman

Two Muslim men receive the death penalty; a third already hanged himself in jail

Amnesty International calls for an independent investigation into the violence

Bangkok, Thailand CNN  — 

A court in western Myanmar has sentenced two Muslim men to death for robbing, raping and killing a woman last month, a case that provoked sectarian clashes in the area that left at least fifty people dead.

The two men – named Mamed Rawphi and Khuchi – received the sentence Monday at the Kyaukpyu District Court in Rakhine State, the government-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported on its website.

A third man, Htet Htet, who had also been charged in relation to the killing, hanged himself using his clothes while in detention on June 9, the newspaper said.

News of the crime may have motivated several hundred people to attack a bus in Rakhine in June, killing 10 Muslims onboard, state media said.

Violence between Buddhists and Muslims spread across the northern part of the state, resulting in the destruction of thousands of homes, according to the government.

The national government declared a state of emergency in Rakhine, bringing in the military to help restore order.

Rakhine is home to the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority group that says it was persecuted by the Myanmar military during decades of authoritarian rule.

At the height of the violence, hundreds of Rohingyas tried to cross the border into neighboring Bangladesh to flee the sectarian violence.

But Bangladeshi authorities have turned them back, saying they already have too many Rohingya refugees.

The unrest in Rakhine appears to have subsided notably from its peak earlier this month.

The challenge for the authorities and international aid groups is supporting the thousands of people driven from their homes by the violence.

“The situation in northern Rakhine State remains very tense,” the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement Tuesday.

The organization called on the authorities to “ensure full and unfettered humanitarian access to displaced people, and conduct an independent and impartial investigation into recent communal violence.”

Vijay Nambiar, a U.N. envoy who visited the affected area, said last week that repairing relations between the different communities in Rakhine would be “a long haul.”

The unrest has tested the efforts of Sein’s administration to seek reconciliation with Myanmar’s different ethnic groups and move the country toward more democratic governance.

CNN’s Kocha Olarn and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.