By David Williams
YANGON
Nationalist protestors and Buddhist monks have marched through nine townships in Myanmar's impoverished Rakhine state to protest the government’s decision to shelter boat people rescued off the country's coast.
The Myanmar Times reported Monday that demonstrations were held against the migrants - many of whom are understood to be Rohingya Muslims - on Sunday in Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-Oo, Minbya, Mye-bon, Buthidaung and Maungdaw.
The largest protest took place in Sittwe, where about 1,000 people led by almost 100 monks marched in heavy rain to demand that the government set a deadline for the expulsion of the “Bengalis.”
Myanmar does not recognize the term Rohingya, preferring to use "Bengali" which suggests the Muslim ethnic group is from Bangladesh across its western border.
“I think the Sittwe protest was the biggest," Settkal Sayadaw of Sittwe told the Times. "Some townships also protested with almost 500 people.”
Two boats carrying over 900 people were found adrift by the Myanmar navy in recent weeks amidst a migrant crisis that began after an anti-trafficking crackdown by Thai authorities scared smugglers into abandoning thousands of people at sea.
But Myanmar authorities, as well as local Buddhist nationalists, have argued that most of those found are from neighboring Bangladesh.
The two governments have since been verifying their nationality.
On June 8, around 150 of the migrants were sent to Bangladesh, while the remainder are thought to be being held in camps in the Taung Pyo area of Maungdaw township, a town in Rakhine state in the westernmost part of Myanmar that lies across the border from Bangladesh.
Aid agencies say that as well as Bangladeshis, Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslims make up a large proportion of those caught up in the crisis, but Myanmar refuses to acknowledge Rohingya as a real ethnicity.
The Times reported Monday that the decision to protest was agreed June 6 between a prominent monks’ organization and Rakhine social and philanthropic organizations.
Those attending the meeting agreed to demand the expulsion of all of the boat people who are being temporarily sheltered in Rakhine.
U Than Tun, a member of the Emergency Coordination Centre of Rakhine State, told the Times that demonstrators simply wanted the government to explain its strategy for handling those on the boats.
“We are confused about what the government is going to do about these 700 Bengalis,” he said.
“We want to know what their plan is. We’re concerned about our security now that these Bengalis are living so close to us.”
The protest was the second against Rohingya in recent weeks
On May 27, nationalist protestors and Buddhist monks also marched through Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon.
Marchers carried signs reading “We are under attack by terrorist so-called boat people,” as they condemned the United Nations for pressuring Myanmar’s government to accept migrants and help resolve the crisis.
“Stop blaming Myanmar!” they chanted.
Prior to Sunday's march, five prominent Buddhist monks in the country met with Rakhine state's chief minister to discuss the protests.
According to the monks, U Maung Maung Ohn requested they not threaten United Nations agencies and other international organizations.
Photos of Sunday's march showed them holding banners reading “INGO/NGO respect the truth,” but none critical of the U.N.
“We agreed to his request and removed the slogan critical of United Nations High Commissioner [UNHCR] for Refugees,” said Sarsana Ranthi Sayadaw, one of the protest leaders.
The UNHCR's assistant high commissioner for protection, Volker Turk, has been involved in a public spat over the origin of the boat people with Myanmar.
On May 29 -- at a Bangkok summit to try and find a solution to the boat people crisis -- Turk said that Myanmar has a responsibility to its people, calling the granting of citizenship to those who are considered stateless -- the Rohingya -- "key."
The Myanmar delegate, Htin Lynn, told Turk that he was "politicizing" the issue by singling out his country as a cause of the crisis that has dragged on for weeks.
"My dear colleague at UNHCR needs to be better informed," the special representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. "Finger pointing will not solve anything. It will take us nowhere."
Rohingya Muslims have suffered systematic discrimination in Myanmar for decades, but their plight has ironically become worse since the reformist government of President Thein Sein came to power in 2011.
His political reforms have been accompanied by outbreaks of anti-Muslim rioting that first flared in Rakhine, leaving hundreds dead and more than 140,000 Rohingya confined to internal displacement camps.
In recent years, around 130,000 Rohingya have fled the country by sea, according to the U.N.. Myanmar’s government has repeatedly denied that persecution of the Rohingya is the root cause of the current migrant crisis on Southeast Asia's shores, and has instead pinned the blame on people traffickers.
Those leaving Myanmar at first boarded rickety boats controlled by human smugglers -- which sometimes sank during the trip across the Andaman Sea -- but since last year, they have been travelling on larger vessels.
Bangladeshis are also increasingly using human smugglers to pursue what they see as the economic promise of Malaysia. But some of them -- along with the Rohingya -- are kidnapped and forced to board the boats.
Many arrive near Thailand’s coast, from where trucks take them to camps hidden in the jungle, where they are detained until their families pay ransom.
They are then left to attempt to cross the border into Malaysia.
On May 1, Thailand’s ruling junta launched a crackdown on trafficking camps in the country’s south following the discovery of mass graves containing the bodies of dozens of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants.
Myanmar state media reported June 8 that there had been no reports of human trafficking cases in Rakhine, although police have arrested 93 traffickers nationwide in the last five months.
