Arakan News Agency
Buddhist extremists in Myanmar on Sunday staged a demonstration calling for the non-return of Rohingya Muslims to the country after fleeing violence in Arakan province to the west of Bangladesh.
Hundreds of extremists and a group of Buddhist monks participated in the demonstration organized in Sittwe (Arakan capital).
During the demonstration, one of its organizers, Aung Htay, urged the Myanmar government not to accept the return of Muslims to Arakan.
On Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Joel Millman said the number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Arakan, west of Myanmar, had risen to 589,000 since August 25.
Since Aug. 25, the Myanmar army has been committing atrocities against Buddhist militias with Buddhist militias against the Muslim minority of Rohingya, killing thousands of them, local activists said.
The Myanmar government regards the Rohingya Muslims as “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh, while the United Nations classifies them as “the most persecuted religious minority in the world.”
