Myanmar’s government will not allow the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation to open a liaison office after thousands of Buddhist monks
and laypeople marched to protest the plan.
Sectarian tensions have been running high in Myanmar’s western Rakhine
state after clashes in June between Rakhine Buddhists and Bengali
Rohingya Muslims which left nearly 90 people dead and displaced tens of
thousands. Muslim mosques and Buddhist temples were burned down during
the unrest.
Myanmar’s state press had reported that the government and the OIC
agreed last month to open an office in Yangon to provide aid for people
displaced by the fighting, and the OIC sent a team to investigate the
violence.
On Monday, the Information Ministry cited the President’s Office as
saying that “the opening of the OIC office will not be allowed as it is
contradictory to the aspirations of the people.”
The OIC has 57 member states and seeks to be the voice of the Islamic world.
The anti-OIC protests were held in four Myanmar cities, including
Yangon, the country’s largest city, where about 5,000 people
participated. Some said they were marching to safeguard Buddhism.
Holding banners reading “We don’t want OIC” and “Long live Buddhism,”
the protesters marched from the Shwedagon pagoda to Sule pagoda in the
city center, shouting slogans against the OIC and paralyzing traffic in
the area.
Similar protests were staged in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe and the second-largest city, Mandalay.
Reflecting widespread public opinion, the head of an influential
privately owned news magazine, Weekly Eleven, said there was no need for
an OIC office because “we are not a member of the OIC and we are not an
Islamic country.”
“If the OIC wants to provide humanitarian aid, they can do so through
NGOs or the U.N.,” Than Htut Aung told The Associated Press. “The
opening of an OIC office amounts to inflaming further tension between
Rakhine people and the Bengalis, and we will not allow the opening of an
OIC office in Myanmar.”
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