AhlulBayt News Agency

source : presstv
Monday

3 September 2012

6:31:00 AM
344077

Hundreds Buddhists monks rally in support of Myanmar stance to deport the Rohingya Muslims

In Myanmar, hundreds of Buddhist monks have held a rally in support of their government’s plan to deport the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - In Myanmar, hundreds of Buddhist monks have held a rally in support of their government’s plan to deport the country's Rohingya Muslim minority.

On Sunday, the crowd in Mandalay held banners in support of the government’s plan to send the minority group away, as a solution to the deadly sectarian violence.

Back in July, Myanmar President Thein Sein said that the “only solution” to the plight of the Rohingya Muslims was to send the nearly-one-million-strong community to refugee camps run by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

“We will send them away if any third country would accept them,” he added. “This is what we are thinking is the solution to the issue.”

Earlier, Sein conceded that politicians, Buddhist monks, and other ethnic figures are stirring up hatred against the Rohingyas.

Reports say some 650 Rohingyas have been killed in the Rakhine state in the west of the country in recent months. This is while 1,200 others are missing and 80,000 more have been displaced.

The Buddhist-majority government of Myanmar refuses to recognize Rohingyas and has classified them as illegal migrants, even though the Rohingyas are said to be Muslim descendants of Persian, Turkish, Bengali, and Pathan origin, who migrated to Myanmar as early as the 8th century.

According to reports, thousands of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims are living in dire conditions in refugee camps after government forces and Buddhist extremists started burning down their villages on August 10.

The UN human rights authorities blame Myanmar’s security forces for the violence, who are believed to have been targeting the Muslims rather than bringing the ethnic violence to an end in the country.

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