 |
| AP Photo/Thein Zaw |
YANGON, Myanmar (AP)
-- Thousands of Buddhist monks, nuns and supporters of an ultranationalist
Buddhist group gathered at an annual conference on the outskirts of Myanmar's
biggest city on Saturday despite being banned by the government.
The State Sangha
Maha Nayaka, the country's highest Buddhist institution, officially banned Ma
Ba Tha for motivating riots largely targeting Myanmar's Muslim minority. The
group was ordered to stop its activities and to take down its signboards
nationwide by July 15.
"According to
their terms, our group is called an unlawful association, but we want you to
know that our group will not be abolished," a senior monk from the group
told the audience at the conference.
Ma Ba Tha and its
high-profile leading monk, Wirathu, have been accused of summoning anti-Islamic
preaching and stirring up mob violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, causing
deaths of Muslims and destruction of their property. Most of the victims are
from the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state.
"We just wanted
to save our people, but maybe many people just want to die like dogs and pigs
in the hands of the enemy," the monk said.
The government's ban
came after Buddhist hard-liners forced local authorities to shut down two
Muslim schools in April and later confronted Muslim neighborhoods claiming to
search for illegal Rohingya hiding in the area. It was the latest manifestation
of years of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar.
"Even if we are
banned, that doesn't mean we will disappear," the monk said Saturday.
"We will continue to do what we can to protect our race and
religion."