Myanmar youth meet bans Muslims on Rohingya suspicions

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar (AA) – Two Muslim members of a delegation participating in a major ethnic youth conference have been banned from taking part on suspicion of being from a minority group that is not recognized as one of the country's official ethnicities.

Although Hlwan Moe Aung, 33, and Thet Suu Yee, 34, identify as Muslims from the southern Bago region, organisers have suggested they are Rohingya Muslims -- and therefore not one of Myanmar’s official 135 ethnic groups.

Conference spokesman Min Naung Taw told Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the duo were asked to leave the Youth Ethnic Conference in eastern Shan state as existing laws did not permit them to take part.

“The conference is organized only for ethnic youths, and we can’t allow anyone who is not ethnic to participate,” Min Naung Taw said by phone.

“Bengali or Rohingya is not a group of ethnicity under the law. That’s why we ask the [30-strong] ethnic Burma delegation [of the du were part] to review their members. However they left the conference in anger."

About 600 representatives of Myanmar’s official 135 ethnic groups have joined the five-day Ethnic Youth Conference in a town of Panglong in restive Shan state to discuss what agenda of ethnic youth affairs should be presented in the Union Peace Conference next month.

Rohingya Muslims, however, are not listed as one of Myanmar's official ethnicities. Neither is Bengali -- a term nationalists refer to them as, as it suggests they are not from Myanmar but interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

Other Muslim groups however can participate.

Talking to local media, Hlwan Moe Aung said that he and Thet Suu Yee "are" members of ethnic Burma, and have the right to participate.

“I am Myanmar Muslim. My father was a political prisoner, and died in prison because of a hunger strike,” Hlwan Moe Aung was quoted as saying.

“We are [simply] blocked because we are Muslims.”

Hlwan Moe Aung has said that on his National Registration Card it lists his “Ethnicity/Religion" as “Myanmar Muslim/Islam”.

Thet Suu Yee's card classifies her as “India+Bamar/Islam”.

Bamar is Myanmar's major ethnicity (also known as Burma) and makes up 68 percent of the population.

A prominent Kachin peace activist Khon Ja, who is also a conference organizer, insisted that many Muslims "were" allowed to participate.

“We don’t look at religion. We look at the ethnicity,” she told Anadolu Agency by phone Thursday.

“The Ethnic Burma delegation is responsible for this as the group brings non-ethnic members."