Interfaith peace march leaders face charges

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Interfaith peace march leaders face charges



YANGON: -- Student leaders who led a peaceful interfaith “peace march” in Rangoon downtown last Saturday are facing charges under the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law, reported The Irrawaddy on Monday.

The violation stemmed from the student leaders’ decision to stick to their original procession route – from Tamwe township to Mahabandoola park in the city’s centre – in defiance of the police order for them to confine their procession to Bo Sein Mann grounds in Tamwe.

One of the student leaders, Thet Aung Lin, explained that they stuck to their original route because there are many mosques, churches, Hindu temples and Buddhist pagodas and monasteries along the route.

He insisted that they had the right as citizens to the peace march.

The peace march, avowing interreligious tolerance, was held against a backdrop of increasing Buddhist ultra-nationalist mobilization in Myanmar against the use of the term “Rohingya” by members of the international community to refer to the stateless Muslim minority in the Arakan state whom the government and the Burmese public refer to as “Bengali” denying them the citizenship.

Also facing similar charges are members of the Myanmar Nationalist Network who led a protest outside the US embassy in Rangoon on April 26 to denounce the use of the term “Rohingya”.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/163543


-- Thai PBS 2016-05-17