Pro-Rohingya protest staged in Indonesia
Group calling itself “People’s Care for Rohingya” demands an end to violence against Southeast Asia’s stateless people.
An Indonesian group calling itself “People’s Care for Rohingya” has been protesting in front of the Myanmar’s embassy in the capital Jakarta against the violence and discrimination suffered by the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar.
Thursday’s demonstration attracted protesters carrying posters saying “stop violence” and chanting “God is great”.
The protesters urged the Myanmar government to end the bloodshed and sectarian violence against the country’s Rohingya population.
The violence between Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists in Myanmar’s western province has been ongoing since June 2011 and resulted in the deaths of 78 people and made tens of thousand homeless.
The protesters theatrically rolled around in fake blood and wrote graffiti on the Myanmar embassy walls.
“The Myanmar government have committed an act of inhumanity,” said protester Arya Sandi Yudh.
“The UN also have already stated that Rohingya to be among the most persecuted people in the world,” he added.
Many in mainly Buddhist Myanmar consider the Rohingya to be illegal settlers from neighbouring Bangladesh.
Report highlights abuses
They have never been recognised by the Myanmar government as citizens.
The United Nations says about 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar.
A recent rights group reports said Myanmar security forces killed, raped or carried out mass arrests of Rohingya Muslims after deadly sectarian riots in the northeast in June
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said aid workers were blocked and in some cases arrested in a government crackdown on the largest group of stateless people in Southeast Asia.
The report came after a week of arson and machete attack by both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingyas in Rakhine state.
Based on 57 interviews with Rakhines and Rohingyas, the report sought to shed light on a conflict that exposed deep-rooted communal animosity and put the spotlight on promises by the civilian government in office since 2011 to protect human rights after decades of brutal army rule.
“Burmese security forces failed to protect the Arakan [Rakhine] and Rohingya from each other and then unleashed a campaign of violence and mass round-ups against the Rohingya,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The government claims it is committed to ending ethnic strife and abuse, but recent events in Arakan State demonstrate that state-sponsored persecution and discrimination persist.”