By Joshua Carroll
YANGON, Myanmar
Nationalist protestors and Buddhist monks marched through Myanmar’s biggest city Wednesday to campaign against an Islamic minority that has been caught up in the deadly boat crisis unfolding in Southeast Asia.
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.
Many of the thousands on board boats adrift at sea are from the Rohingya community, who have for years been fleeing Myanmar by sea in their tens of thousands to escape persecution from both the authorities and extremist Buddhists.
But the protestors Wednesday denied that those on board the boats are Rohingya, an ethnicity that they say doesn’t exist.
“There is no such thing in Myanmar as Rohingya,” they shouted.
Instead they claim they are all from neighboring Bangladesh, though aid agencies say people from both countries are caught up in the crisis.
The UN has become deeply unpopular among nationalists for its statements condemning the harsh treatment of the minority, which is denied citizenship by the government.
“The UN is trying to coerce our country,” Htet Htet Soe Oo, a protestor, told Anadolu Agency. “They said we must accept the boat people as out citizens.”
There has been a sharp increase in Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar since the country began opening up following decades of military dictatorship.
Anti-Muslim violence has flared across the country, killing hundreds and displacing at least 140,000. Most of those are Rohingya in western Rakhine, a coastal state that runs along the Bay of Bengal and borders Bangladesh.
