Hundreds staged protests against UN and INGOs

( Buthidaung, 7 February 2014): Over 1000 Arakanese people in Buthidaung staged a protest program on Thursday against the UN and INGOs as those organizations had recently accused the Arakanese Buddhists of killing many Muslim people in Du Chayar Dan village in the their findings, said U Tun Hlaing, who led the demonstration.
“Tension between the two communities  in our area increased due to such reports which were issued by agencies associated with the UN and INGOs.  We do not need such international organizations in our country, because they  are trying to create conflicts between various communities in Arakan State,” he added.
Arakan witnessed huge violence in 2012 involving both Buddhist and Muslim residents of the State. Of course, slowly the situation turned into almost normalcy in the recent past. However, the reports of these foreign organizations made the atmosphere volatile again, he asserted.
The international media had recently reported that over 40 Muslim women & children were killed by Arakanese Buddhists in Du Chayar Dan village under Maungdaw township on the basis of reports produced by many INGOs.

The incident took place on January 13, but there was no evidence to accuse the local Arakanese people as being involved in the violence, claimed U Tun Hlaing.
The demonstrators initially gathered at Aye Zaydi monastery at 1 pm and later they marched on the streets holding different posters, banners and placards with the content of condemnation message to those foreign organizations.
The protesters also shouted slogans against the UN and INGOs with few media organizations like Associated Press, Irrawaddy etc for misreporting the issue. The demonstration, for which the organizers received permission from the authority,  ended peacefully at around 2:30 pm.
Calling the UN and INGOs to leave Maungdaw district within a week the agitators also raised voices  for fulfilling their seven-point demands for sustained progress, peace and tranquility in the State, added U Tun Hlaing.
The demands also include the withdrawal of the reports indicting local Arakanese Buddhists to be involved with the murder of Muslim people and also empowering the Arakan police with sophisticated arms & ammunitions at the earliest.