Several hundred nationalist protesters took to the streets in Yangon on Wednesday afternoon to voice their opposition to Muslim Rohingya migrants and the flak that Myanmar has taken from the international community for not helping them.
Monks from the right-leaning Buddhist organization 969 were in attendance. Many of the participants wore white shirts with red lettering saying “Boat People are not Myanmar” and “Stop Blaming Myanmar.”
Out of some 500 people, demonstrators were of all ages, including some children, teenagers and the elderly. There were also men and women.
In addition to wearing t-shirts and bandanas they carried banners with a number of messages.
“There is no Rohingya in Myanmar History which has been over 2200 years,” read one.
Others had the phrases “Myanmar has no shore for Boat people!!!” and “The UN was not established to bully small nations.”
The BBC was a particular target of ire, and got its own banner.
The banners, like the t-shirts and bandanas and placards carried by protesters, were bilingual, showing the extent to which the international community was the true audience for the day.
Myanmar has been an object of scorn and criticism in recent weeks as reports continue to highlight the desperate struggle of the Muslim Rohingya people, who are fleeing internal displacement camps in western Rakhine state.
The Rohingya and refugees from Bangladesh have been stranded on boats in regional waters after traffickers abandoned them to avoid a crackdown on longstanding smuggling routes. Only recently have some countries in the region agreed to let them land and stop them from dying at sea.
The Myanmar government doesn’t consider “Rohingya” a distinct ethnic group and officially calls them “Bengalis.”
As the true scope of the crisis became apparent, critical voices have only grown louder, and Wednesday’s rally also appeared to urge the government not to bow to the pressure.
But special attention was paid to getting the message outside of Myanmar. Participants carried cards with chants written on them in Burmese and English. Foreigners in attendance were approached and shown the chants, while many people posed for photos.
One protester yelled, in English, “there is no Rohingya!”
The rally started near Ocean supermarket in Tamwe and wound its way through the streets of eastern Yangon, occasionally snarling traffic.
Protesters arrived at an open field that’s part of Kyaikkasan stadium, where a stage had been erected. Speeches were given to the hundreds assembled in the field, though heavy rains eventually set in, putting something of a dampener on the firebrand spirit.
Though the general mood was impassioned, no violence or injuries were reported.
Photos: Coconuts Media
