Myanmar nationalists protest Rohingya aid ship

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) – Nationalists in Myanmar staged a demonstration on Thursday as a Malaysian ship carrying food and humanitarian aid for Rohingya Muslims arrived in the former capital Yangon.

Hundreds of nationalists lined up outside the Thilawa port -- where a Malaysian food flotilla docked before leaving for Bangladesh -- to protest use of the “Rohingya” term by the international community.

“We do not protest Malaysian donations … to Bengalis. But we are protesting the use of ‘Rohingya’,” Win Ko Latt from the Yangon-based Myanmar National Network told Anadolu Agency.

Buddhist monks are among the protesters holding flags and placards that read “No Rohingya. They are Bengalis” and “We do not allow the word Rohingya”.

On Thursday, the Malaysian ship carrying 2,300 tons of humanitarian goods arrived in Yangon’s Thilawa port where it will unload 500 tons of supplies to help the persecuted minority Rohingya Muslim community in Rakhine state.

It will then leave for Bangladesh on Friday.

The mission has been organized by the 1Malaysia Club and the Malaysia Islamic Organizations Consultative Council with the cooperation of the Turkiye Diyanet (Religious Affairs) Foundation (TDV), which is supported by the Turkish government.

Myanmar’s government does not recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group, and refers them as Bengali, a term suggesting they are illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.