More than 300 monks and nuns protested in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon against a United Nations envoy’s call for the government to uphold the rights of a persecuted Muslim minority group, while a high-ranking U.S. diplomat urged religious tolerance in the predominantly Buddhist country.
The crowd denounced Yanghee Lee, the U.N.’s human rights envoy for Myanmar, who is wrapping up a 10-day visit to the country to access its human rights situation.
She asked authorities in volatile Rakhine state in western Myanmar not to ignore the plight of Rohingya Muslims and urged local Rakhine ethnics to live peacefully with them.
“Regarding the Rohingya case, it’s not only the government, but also monks, people and political parties— everybody who lives in this country has a responsibility [to oppose what the U.N. is calling for] because it is a threat to our country’s sovereignty,” said Wirathu, a hardline nationalist cleric who participated in the protest and one of the leaders of the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion (Mabatha).
“That’s why our organization led this protest,” he said.
The monks and nuns marched in protest from the city’s Shwedagon pagoda to Tamwe township in east central Yangon, he told RFA’s Myanmar Service
Wirathu and another Mabatha monk named Pamautkha as well as Tin Htoo Aung, chairman of the Rakhine National Network, a group that opposes extending rights to the Rohingya, gave speeches at the rally, he said.
The protesters also demanded the upholding of the country’s 1982 Citizen Law, which essentially designates Rohingya and other ethnic minorities as non-citizens.
During Lee’s visit, she cautioned that inter-religious violence continued to be a significant problem in the country, especially in Rakhine state, where she said acute tensions between Buddhists and Muslims could have “far-reaching implications,” according to an Agence France-Presse report.
Lee’s visit followed the passage of a U.N. resolution late last month calling on Myanmar to grant full citizenship to the Rohingya, allow them to move about freely, and give them equal access to services, according to reports.
U.S. delegation
Lee’s trip to Myanmar coincided with a six-day visit by a high-level delegation of U.S. officials, led by Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski, who was in the country to discuss human rights with Myanmar officials in the capital Naypyidaw.
“We are very concerned … about growing signs of racial and religious intolerance and the impact of this trend on the future of democratic reform in the country,” Malinowski told a press conference Friday in Yangon.
With regard to the plight of the 1.3 million Rohingya who are stateless and vulnerable, he said the U.S. delegation suggested the government allow unfettered humanitarian access to those in need, come up with a plan that does not indefinitely hold stateless persons in camps or call for their deportation, and put in place a nondiscriminatory citizenship process that allows people to become full citizens without having to identify their religion in a way that is contrary to how they view themselves.
“We expressed a concern that the use of religion in particular to divide people—whether it is done for political or for any other purposes—is incredibly dangerous, particularly in an election year, particularly in a country that has maintained such a delicate balance over the years among its diverse ethnic and religious communities.
“We expressed a concern that this really is playing with fire and exposing the country to dangers that it is not prepared to handle.”
Malinowski also mentioned other human rights concerns the delegation discussed, including land reform policy, prisoners of conscience, and the right to peaceful assembly.
Both the U.S. and U.N. raised concerns about four controversial religious laws proposed, but not yet passed, by President Thein Sein in response to lobbying by Mabatha.
Rights activists say the draft legislation, which includes curbs on interfaith marriage, religious conversion and birth rates, discriminates against minorities and women.
Persecution
The persecuted Rohingya have been denied citizenship, evicted from their homes, and have had their land confiscated. In 2012, radical Buddhists killed hundreds of Rohingya and burned their villages.
The Myanmar government has come up with the Rakhine Action Plan, requiring Rohingya to meet stringent verification requirements for citizenship.
Under the policy, they must supply proof of a six-decade residency to qualify for naturalized citizenship—a second-class citizenship with fewer rights than full citizenship that would classify them as “Bengali” rather than Rohingya, indicating they have illegally immigrated from neighboring Bangladesh.
Those who fail to meet the requirement or refuse the Bengali classification would be housed in camps, and then deported.
Reported by Kyaw Htun Naing for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.