Ethnic Rakhines protest outside Myanmar embassy in Tokyo

09 October 2018
Ethnic Rakhines protest outside Myanmar embassy in Tokyo
Ethnic Rakhines protested outside the Myanmar embassy in Tokyo on Monday. Photo: Arakan Youths Union - Japan

About 70 ethnic Rakhines protested outside the Myanmar embassy in Tokyo on Monday, calling on State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to release a Rakhine nationalist leader and a social activist arrested earlier this year and charged with treason, RFA reported.

The country’s de facto leader has been in Japan since Oct. 5 to attend a Mekong-Japan Summit on Tuesday and to drum up Japanese investment for Myanmar at a time when much of the international community has heavily condemned her and the National League for Democracy (NLD) government over the handling of the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine state.

The demonstration, organized by the Arakan Youth Union (AYU-Japan), demanded that the Myanmar government immediately release Rakhine politician Aye Maung and author and activist Wai Han Aung, who were arrested in January and charged under the High Treason Law and the Unlawful Association Act.