SITTWE, Myanmar: Hundreds of Buddhists jeered former UN chief Kofi Annan as he arrived in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state Tuesday to examine a bitter religious conflict that has displaced tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya.
Annan has been tasked by the de facto leader of Myanmar’s new government, Aung San Suu Kyi, to head a commission charged with finding ways to heal wounds in the poor western state.
But in a sign of the passions surrounding the issue, protesters turned out as he landed in the state capital Sittwe.
Many booed and shouted “No Kofi-led commission” into loudspeakers as they swarmed around his convoy, carrying signs that read, “No to foreigners’ biased intervention in our Rakhine State’s affairs”.
“We want decisions to be made by our own people. I don’t want foreigners to make decisions, that is why I am peacefully protesting here,” May Phyu told AFP.
