Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Burmese Muslims leaders at the National League for Democracy head office in Rangoon on 6 June 2012. (Reuters)

Burmese state media has issued a retraction for the use of racially offensive language in its official appeal for calm after sectarian violence saw ten Muslims brutally killed by an angry mob on Sunday in Arakan state.

Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Burmese Muslims leaders at the National League for Democracy head office in Rangoon on 6 June 2012. (Reuters)

A government statement published in the New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday warned against “anarchic and lawless” acts, but attracted a virulent backlash for referring to the victims as “kalar” – a racial slur for Muslims or persons of Indian appearance.