Kuala Lumpur
– Members of a coalition of ASEAN Humanitarian NGOs held demonstrations in
front of the Embassy of Myanmar in Kuala Lumpur on 25/11/2016, Friday afternoon
and called on the Government of Myanmar to stop the ongoing violence against
the Rohingya in Maungdaw District, Arakan state.
Hundreds of
local Malaysians, members of the ruling party of Malaysia and members of the
Rohingya refugee community have joined the protest organized by “the Food for
Flotilla Myanmar, Rakhine State, a coalition of 61 ASEAN Humanitarian NGOs.”
The protesters
called on the President and the State Counselor of Myanmar to stop the vicious
attacks and human rights abuses on the Rohingya by the state’s army, allow
humanitarian access to the humanitarian NGOs to assist food, aid and medical
needs to the displaced people, allow the IDP (Internally Displaced People) to
safely return to their original lands and ensure their ethnic and political
rights are given.
Coincidentally,
the Embassy of Myanmar in Kuala Lumpur was closed today and an official
statement of the Embassy’s Facebook page reads “the embassy will be closed on
Friday, 25th November, 2016, as the embassy building needs patching and repair
works.” The memorandum letter was submitted to the embassy through one of its
responsible staffs.
Similar
protests were held in Jakarta and Bangkok under the organization of the
Coalition of Humanitarian NGOs around 2:30 pm in their respective standard
time.
In Dhaka and
Chittagong of Bangladesh also thousands of peoples gathered after Friday
prayers to protest against the military assaults on the Rohingya civilians in
Maungdaw, Arakan state, Myanmar.