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Protests in Myanmar over boat people arrivals

Parliamentary speaker urges international community to show greater respect
Protests in Myanmar over boat people arrivals

A migrant, who was found at sea on a boat, arrives at a temporary shelter near the Kanyin Chaung jetty to MeeThike sub-township outside Maungdaw township, northern Rakhine state on June 4 (AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)

Published: June 04, 2015 09:15 AM GMT
Updated: June 03, 2015 10:15 PM GMT

Myanmar’s parliamentary speaker has warned UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other international organizations to exercise more caution and respect amid the boat people crisis, while local protests over the arrivals of Bangladeshi migrants mount.

“The international community needs to adopt an objective and impartial approach by keeping in mind the peace and security of the whole world, including Myanmar,” said Thura U Shwe Mann in a letter dated Wednesday and published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Thursday.

The warning came one day after an estimated 1,000 Buddhist monks and laypeople from 26 townships in the Irrawaddy delta took to the streets in Pathein to protest international pressure over the migrant crisis, according to local media reports.

Shwe Mann said that the country’s “sovereignty” and the characteristics of its “nationalities” should be kept in mind in the interest of consolidating Myanmar’s endeavors to achieve “democracy and peace”.

He also called on UN and international organizations to not aggravate communal tensions and conflicts while addressing human trafficking and boat people.

The rare comments by the speaker come amid mounting criticism and pressure by the international community and rights groups over the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

More than 3,500 hungry and bedraggled Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, and Bangladeshi economic migrants, have arrived on Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian soil in recent weeks in a regional migration crisis.

An estimated 2,500 migrants are still believed to be stranded at sea.

Myanmar’s Foreign Minister, Wunna Mg Lwin met with the Bangladesh ambassador on Wednesday and urged him to expeditiously process and repatriate the rescued boat people.

Bangladesh agreed to begin the repatriation of 200 people, who arrived last month, on June 7 according to a press release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Tin Mg Swe, a senior Rakhine state government official, said the repatriation process will start with around 150 people. Verifying the origins of more than 700 boat people who arrived this week will begin Friday.

“We are providing food, drinking water and temporary shelter to those 700 boat people who are now being sheltered in Taung Pyo Let Wa and at border post 37, near the Bangladesh frontier,” Tin Mg Swe told ucanews.com on Thursday.

While boat people disembark in Myanmar, there have been growing signs of anger and dissatisfaction especially among hardline Buddhist monks and laypeople.

Media reports said that protesters on Wednesday held placards that read: “We don’t want illegal Bengali migrants” and “we don’t accept accusations of the UN and NGOs”.

U Parmaukkha, a senior monk from the Committee of Protection for the Nationality and Religion, known as Ma Ba Tha, led the protest on Wednesday.

“If the international community emphasizes human rights, why don’t they bring Bengali boat people to their country,” U Parmaukkha told ucanews.com.

The nation’s estimated 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims live in a state of abject poverty and abuse. Though most have lived in Myanmar for generations, the government considers them illegal immigrants and refuses them access to the most basic of services.

Hundreds of thousands have fled the country in recent years, or have been corralled into internal displacement camps without adequate food or medical care.

“Rohingya need to be treated as citizens of Burma,” US Assistant Secretary of state, Anne Richard told reporters in a press briefing according to Reuters News Agency.

“They need to have identity cards and passports that make clear they are as much citizen of Burma as anyone else,” she added, using the country’s former name.

US President, Obama also said on Monday that Myanmar needed to end discrimination against Rohingya people if it wanted to succeed in its transition to a democracy.

But the director of the presidential office, Zaw Htay defended the country, noting that Myanmar doesn’t have a race called “Rohingya” and thus can’t accept them.

“If they want to become citizens, they shall be verified under the 1982 citizenship law. Otherwise, they are deemed to be internally displaced people or illegal migrants,” Zaw Htay posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

Additional reporting by AFP

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