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Rohingya Muslims
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Hardline Buddhist monks storm UN ‘safe house’ in Sri Lanka to attack Rohingya refugees

Mob storms house in Colombo, denouncing Muslim occupants as ‘terrorists’, even though most are children

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Sri Lankan Buddhists led by a monk march in a rally in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on September 15, claiming solidarity with Myanmar’s majority Buddhists and denouncing the Rohingya minority as terrorists. UN officials and others say the Rohingya are victims of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Photo: AP
Associated Press

A group led by Buddhist monks mobbed a United Nations-run safe house for Rohingya Muslims on Tuesday, claiming that they were terrorists and demanding they be sent back to Myanmar, prompting police to relocate them.

Dozens of protesters from Sri Lanka’s majority Buddhist community led a mob that stormed a multi-storied house at Mount Lavinia on the outskirts of the Sri Lankan capital.

Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said about 30 Rohingya Muslims were taken into police custody to be moved to a safe location following the protest led by monks and lay persons.

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Gunasekara said the group which included 16 children and seven women and seven men were arrested by the Navy in April when they tried to illegally enter Sri Lanka. A court had ordered them be kept at a safe location run by the UN.  
Members from the Sinhala Api National Organisation gather outside Myanmar’s embassy in Colombo. Photo: EPA
Members from the Sinhala Api National Organisation gather outside Myanmar’s embassy in Colombo. Photo: EPA
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A video clip posted by the nationalist group – Sinhala National Movement – on its Facebook page shows protesters calling Rohingyas “terrorists who killed Buddhists in Myanmar” and saying that they can’t live in Sri Lanka.

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