Buddhists in Myanmar protest against citizenship for Rohingya

Hundreds of nationalist Buddhists in Myanmar's conflict-ridden Rakhine State on Sunday protested against citizenship for the Rohingya Muslim minority. 

"They are not qualified to become citizens," Aung Htay, one of the protest organisers told journalists. 

Rakhine State, where most Rohingya live, has been rocked by communal tensions for decades. Violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012 killed almost 200 and displaced 140,000, most of them Rohingya.  

The protest organisers claimed that 2,000 people took to the streets in Sittwe, while another 700 participated in two townships in Rakhine State. 

The protest came three days after a committee led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan presented a set of recommendations on how to resolve the conflict. 

The advisory committee, which was founded in September to advise the government on how to promote peace in the troubled area, recommended that the Rohingya camps should be gradually dissolved and the citizenship verification process expedited.    (dpa)

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