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Hardline Myanmar Buddhists decry boat people 'pressure'

Call on international community to stay out of affairs regarding persecution of Rohingya
Hardline Myanmar Buddhists decry boat people 'pressure'

Protesters shout slogans against Rohingya boat migrants originating from Myanmar, who are largely seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and referred to as 'Bengali', during a demonstration in Yangon on Wednesday. Several hundred Buddhist nationalists protested in Yangon against mounting international pressure for Myanmar to stem the deluge of Rohingya migrants from its shores and provide those still stranded at sea with aid (AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)

Published: May 27, 2015 10:19 AM GMT
Updated: May 28, 2015 09:16 PM GMT

Hundreds of hardline Buddhist monks and citizens rallied in Yangon on Wednesday, defending their treatment of the oppressed Rohingya minority and calling on the international community to stay out of Myanmar’s affairs.

The protest came in response to calls for Myanmar to provide aid to the growing number of boat people and to address the root causes of the exodus from its shores as well as those of neighboring Bangladesh.

U Pamaukkha, a Buddhist monk activist and one of the organizers of the protest, said the rally was in response to international pressure on Myanmar to accept “Bengali” boat people.

"The government rescuing these stupid Bengalis is not a good idea," he said in a speech Wednesday.

“We absolutely turn down the pressure from foreign countries to accept Bengalis as they are not the citizens of our country. So we call on the international community not to interfere the sovereignty in the name of human rights. The Bengalis are trying to influence our Buddhist community in the country so we must defend from it,” U Pamaukkha told ucanews.com via phone on Wednesday.

The Myanmar government and many citizens refer to the oppressed Muslim minority as “Bengali,” and consider them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh — though most of the more than one million population have lived in Myanmar for generations.

As the group of approximately 500 marched to the colonial-era Kyaikkasan race course to hear speeches against boat people, protesters wore anti-Rohingya shirts and carried signs reading: “UN, stop making story of Rohingya, Boat people are not Myanmar.” As they walked, they chanted: "boat people are from Bangladesh" and "stop making up stories about the Rohingya" and "stop blaming Myanmar".

A migrant crisis has gripped Southeast Asia for weeks as more than 3,500 Bangladeshi economic migrants and stateless Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar have arrived on Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian soil.

Thousands more are still thought to be stranded in open waters with diminishing supplies of food and water after a crackdown in southern Thailand fractured a vast human trafficking network.

Myanmar's navy found exhausted and hungry men and boys, mainly thought to be from Bangladesh, crammed in the rusting hull of a smugglers' boat in waters off its coast last week.

They have been held in a border region of western Rakhine state, where Muslim Rohingya live in abject conditions after 2012 communal violence that left the region deeply segregated and sparked a deadly wave of anti-Muslim attacks.

Myanmar’s first Cardinal, Charles Maung Bo, raised his concern over the plight of boat people and urged his country to show compassion and mercy.

“Our brothers and sisters in Myanmar never [flinched] from their commitment to compassion in the moments of human brokenness. Sadly, democracy has brought in hatred, denial of rights to sections of the people. People of Myanmar [must] reset their moral compasses and return to fellowship,” Cardinal Bo said in a statement issued Monday night.

The cardinal added that Myanmar citizens have a moral obligation to “protect and promote the dignity” of all human persons. “Names cannot dilute humanity. A community cannot be demonized and denied its basic rights to name, citizenship and right to community.”

Myanmar's roughly 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims have left Rakhine state in droves to escape years of restrictions limiting their access to employment, basic services like education and healthcare, and even family size. Sporadic violence has seen hundreds of thousands flee their homes for horrifically run displacement camps or risky journeys over seas.

Myanmar officials, however, denied allegations of persecution of the Rohingya.

“It’s very clear that Myanmar is not the source of problems related to boat people in the Andaman Sea, but rather a partner for solutions. The international community must understand that pressuring and blaming Myanmar is not the way to save lives at sea,” Zaw Htay, director of president’s office wrote in an article for Bangkok Post on May 24.

The United Nations welcomed Myanmar’s planned participation in the regional meeting to be held in Bangkok on May 29 to discuss the crisis.

New York-based Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on the leaders of Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh to show greater recognition of and respect for the rights of Rohingya and Bangladeshis on these boats.

“Myanmar and Bangladesh need to stop persecuting Rohingya, while Thailand and Malaysia urgently need to shut down camps where boat people are held to end abuses and ensure that no more mass graves are created on their soil,” Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director said in a statement.

Additional reporting by AFP and Simon Lewis.

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