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Friday 01 Jan 2016 - 14:07 Makkah mean time-21-3-1437
Yangon, Myanmar (IINA) - Myanmar authorities denied on Wednesday an application for a planned seminar on the ethnic identity of Rohingya Muslims, a minority that is not officially recognized in the country's restive western province of Rakhine, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported citing an official.
Rohingya, whom the UN consider to be the world’s most persecuted ethnic minority, have been fleeing Myanmar in droves since 2012, in fear of violence that some human rights groups believe to be state sponsored.
A senior official confirmed on Thursday to AA that Yangon’s regional government had decided to block the seminar, expressing concern that it could have sparked anger among the public.
“According to the decision of the Cabinet meeting yesterday, we informed the organizers today that (they) were not permitted to hold the seminar”, the official said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak with media.
“The seminar is not necessary at this time as even the president doesn’t accept the ‘Rohingya’ word, and already said these so-called Rohingyas are illegal Bengali immigrants from the neighboring country”, he added. “It will only make people angry again”.
AA was unable to reach organizers and participants of the “Consideration on the Ethnic Identity of the so-called Rohingya” event for comment.
More than one million Rohingya Muslims, whom the government refers to as “Bengali” to imply they are interlopers from Bangladesh, live in Rakhine, which has witnessed a series of violent outbreaks between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and minority Muslims since mid-2012.
According to the Arakan Project, a group monitoring rights violations and migration across the Bay of Bengal, the conflict has left hundreds dead and more than 140,000 – mostly Rohingya -- confined to internal displacement camps.
Following a human trafficking crisis in Southeast Asia earlier this year, Myanmar’s neighbors had called on the country to resolve its Muslim Rohingya issue, which human rights groups have claimed is the source of the trafficking problem.
Myanmar has responded to all criticisms of its internal problems by accusing outsiders of interfering in its affairs.
AG/IINA
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