Hundreds of Buddhist nationalists rallied in Pathein, the regional capital of the Irrawaddy Delta region, demanding that the government declare that the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority is not an official ethnic group.
The demonstration, organized by the Myanmar Nationalist Network and Ma Ba Tha, also known as the Committee to Protect Race and Religion, lasted about three hours, according to the Myanmar Times.
“Today as we marched and shouted our demand, that those who call Bengali people Rohingya are known as our enemies,” Wai Yan Aung, one of the demonstrators, told the Times.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been confined to internal displacement camps and villages in western Rakhine state since intercommunal broke out in 2012.
The latest round of anti-Rohingya sentiment comes after the US embassy used the word ‘Rohingya’ in a statement about a boat tragedy involving Muslims from Rakhine state.
