Buddhists protest status of Rohingya

SITTWE, Burma — Hundreds of hard-line Buddhists in a Burmese state wracked by religious violence protested Sunday against the government’s plan to give citizenship to some members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority community.

Rakhine state’s dominant Arakan National Party led the protest in Sittwe, the Rakhine state capital, where many Rohingya lived before an outbreak of intercommunal violence in 2012 forced them to flee their homes.

“We are protesting to tell the government to rightfully follow the 1982 citizenship law and we cannot allow the government giving citizenship cards to these illegal migrants,” said Aung Htay, a protest organizer.

The Rohingya face severe discrimination in Buddhist-majority Burma, with many in Rakhine and elsewhere considering them to be illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh, even though Rohingya have been in Burma for generations. The 2012 violence killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people — predominantly Rohingya — from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

Rakhine, one of the poorest states in Burma, is home to more than 1 million stateless Rohingya.

Sunday’s protest took place three days after the Rakhine Advisory Commission, led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, urged Burma’s government to reconsider a failed program to verify Rohingya for Burmese citizenship and to remove restrictions on freedom of movement.

“We also look at the question of citizenship, and we also call for all those who have been recognized as citizens to have all the rights attached to that citizenship,” Ghassan Salame, a commission memer, said.

Burma’s new civilian government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, welcomed the commission’s proposal. Suu Kyi’s office said most of the commission’s recommendations would be “implemented promptly.”

The government withdrew the Rohingya’s so-called white cards two years ago as part of a plan to expel them from the country and cancel their citizenship under the 1982 law.

Burma is often called Myanmar, a name adopted after the military took power in 1989.

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