Protests in Malaysia in support of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims

A Bangladeshi fisherman told AFP that he had rescued on Monday one woman, who told him that the “overcrowded” boat had sunk in the Naf river, after it was chased by a Myanmar army speedboat.

However, she failed to address the lack of evidence the military used as an excuse to start raiding Rohingya Muslim-populated villages.

Rohingya Muslims are concentrated in Myanmar’s southwest Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh.

“It is with this in mind that Malaysia has repeatedly offered its assistance to the Myanmar government in finding a solution for a just and durable immediate solution to the persecution of the Rohingyas in northern Rakhine”, it said.

“An estimated 21,000 Rohingya have arrived in Cox’s Bazar district between October 9 and December 2”, she told AFP by phone.

The Myanmar government have denied allegations that it is persecuting Rohingya Muslims.

Najib led a protest rally Sunday against what he called a genocide of Myanmars Muslim Rohingya minority and urged the worldwide community to help halt the atrocities. “The problem is not just with the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi because it can not control its own armed forces”.

Myanmar’s Rakhine state, home to Rohingya Muslims in the predominantly Buddhist nation, was the scene of intense ethnic violence in 2012 that left hundreds dead and drove 140,000 people into camps for the internally displaced, a lot of them Rohingya.

According to the ERC’s website during the roundtable more than 100 Rohingya youths with vision, passion, solidarity, hope, unity and perseverance chose to form the umbrella organisation named ERC.

United Nations officials said this week more than 10,000 people have fled the recent fighting to Bangladesh.

The latest outbreak of violence was triggered by attacks on Myanmar border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers. The identity of the perpetrators remains unclear. The government blamed the Rohingyas for the assault.

Analysis of satellite images by Human Rights Watch found hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been razed.

On landing in state capital Sittwe on Friday morning, the Advisory Commission on Rakhine was met by several hundred people from a network of community groups who had waited for hours along a road between the airport and the regional government office for Annan’s motorcade. About 100,000 remain in the squalid camps and dependent on charity.

On Sunday, Razak told the Kuala Lumpur rally – attended by thousands of Rohingya, many of them refugees – that the gathering was aimed at telling Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi – a Nobel Peace laureate – “that enough is enough”. Speaking out for Rohingya rights is an unpopular political position in Myanmar.

Suu Kyi heads Myanmar’s National League for Democracy, which holds parliamentary majority.

Protesters gather at Yangon’s Mahabandoola Park yesterday.

During his visit, Mr Annan observed the fear and distrust between the two communities of Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims but he believes that the enmity should not last forever.

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