Speaking at the state government headquarters in Sittwe, the former United Nations secretary general called on Myanmar’s neighbours to “play a constructive and positive role”, reports the Myanmar times.
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The plight of the Rohingya has raised questions about Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s commitment to human rights and represents a politically sensitive issue for her National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory past year.
The state’s dominant Arakan National Party and the Rakhine Women Network led the protest about 300 meters (yards) from the airport in Sittwe, the Rakhine capital, where Annan and other members of the Rakhine Advisory Commission arrived Tuesday morning.
The wire agency also interviewed locals, one of whom said she joined the protest because she did not like foreigners in her state.
More than 100 people have been killed – majority Muslims – while tens of thousands of the stateless Rohingya have spent the past four years trapped in bleak displacement camps. “Kalar” is a derogatory word used in Myanmar to refer to Muslims.
Some members of the ANP – formed by hardline Rakhine Buddhists – will participate in a protest against the commission on Tuesday.
The invitation reinforces Suu Kyi’s primacy on the worldwide stage as the real head of a government she is technically barred from leading.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak, Myanmar’s State Councellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi, and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attend the opening ceremony of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Vientiane on September 6, 2016. “You will be able to assess for yourself the roots of the problems itself, not in one day, not in one week”.
The commission is to address human rights, ensuring humanitarian assistance, rights and reconciliation, establishing basic infrastructure and promoting long-term development plans.
The envoy, who has vowed to be impartial, met local Rakhine leaders and civil society groups in Sittwe shortly after his arrival. Recognising the highly charged nature of the divisions in the state, he said his advisory commission would listen to all sides. It will also visit camps for stateless Muslims tomorrow and is expected to present its findings in the next two months.
He also met Suu Kyi during a visit to Myanmar in 2014, when he criticized the ban that prevents her from assuming the presidency.
“Though we respect Kofi Annan and his reputation, we don’t want such a commission”, he said.
Annan is leading a nine-member committee, including six Myanmar citizens and three foreigners, to discuss options for peace with Rakhine’s minority communities.
The protest was called by some leaders in the state’s powerful Arakan National Party (ANP), which has criticised the commission, insisting that foreigners can not understand the history of the area.
Members of the almost one-million-strong Rohingya community are largely denied citizenship and the government does not recognise them as an official ethnic minority.
“We want him to come”, said Hla Kyaw, a Rohingya man from The Chaung, a village outside Sittwe where many displaced Muslim families live in tents.
The Rohingya are considered by many in Myanmar to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and most do not have citizenship.
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However, the issue remains sensitive to local Buddhists.
