Awaiting them at the airport was around 1,000 hardline ethnic nationalists, many waving banners emblazoned with “No to Kofi Annan-led commission”. The MP said three foreigners taking part in the commission would make the Rakhine issue an worldwide issue rather than a local issue.
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The Rohingya are despised by hard-line Buddhists, who say they have no right to citizenship and label them “Bengalis”, shorthand for illegal immigrants.
Annan has been tasked by the de facto leader of Myanmar’s new government, Aung San Suu Kyi, to head a commission charged with finding ways to heal wounds in the poor western state.
Hundreds of Buddhist hardliners booed former United Nations chief Kofi Annan as he arrived in Myanmar’s Rakhine state yesterday to probe the religious conflict that has displaced tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya. “Kalar” is a derogatory word used in Myanmar to refer to Muslims. “We really welcome that Kofi Annan is leading the Rakhine Commission and we trust that they will be able to solve the long, complex situation here”.
The commission is to address human rights, ensuring humanitarian assistance, rights and reconciliation, establishing basic infrastructure and promoting long-term development plans.
After the event, Dutch commission member Laetitia van den Assum, a former diplomat and United Nations adviser, reiterated Mr Annan’s promise that the body would focus on community consultation “We are here to listen and to learn”, she said.
However, the region’s largest political group, the Arakan National Party, has already ruled out meeting Annan.
Annan is meeting Rakhine leaders as well as visiting camps where tens of thousands of Rohingya languish in punishing poverty. Dr Aye Maung, the party’s chairman, said vice-chair Daw Aye Nu Sein instead presented him with a letter outlining the party’s position on the commission.
Annan said he is “confident that we can assist the people of Rakhine to chart the common path to the peaceful and prosperous future”.
One of the local residents, May Phyu, from the Buddhist community told the Associated Press: “We came here because we don’t want that foreigner coming to our state”.
The near one-million-strong Rohingya are largely denied citizenship and the government does not recognize them as an official ethnic minority.
Every year, tens of thousands of Rohingya, who are known as among some of the most persecuted minorities in the world, flee Burma and make perilous journeys in rickety boats to seek refuge in other Southeast Asian countries.
It has been more than four years since religiously-motivated violence shook Myanmar’s westernmost state, leaving about 140,000 people displaced in camps.
Many Buddhists in Rakhine and across Myanmar consider Rohingya to be Bangladeshis living in the country illegally, though the ethnic group has been in Myanmar for generations.
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But that question of identity remains incendiary for Buddhist hard-liners.
