Dozens of civil society groups in Rakhine State will ask President U Thein Sein to allow undocumented Muslims there to be settled in camps or resettled elsewhere in Myanmar, Mizzima has been told.
The request will be made in a letter that the groups plan to send later this month, U Than Tun, a member of the Emergency Coordination Centre, told Mizzima on August 20.
He said the letter, to be signed by more than 40 civil society groups, expressed the wishes and opinions of Rakhine Buddhists.
"The key points are that documented Bengalis be allowed to settle in their original places and those who are undocumented should either be kept at a designated site in Rakhine State or be allowed to resettle elsewhere in Myanmar," U Than Tun said.
U Aung Win, an elder at a camp for internally displaced persons in the state capital, Sittway, said the request amounted to a violation of human rights.
"We cannot accept being isolated and confined to a single place, even in Rakhine State," U Aung Win said, adding that the people who call themselves Rohingya wanted to have the right to do business and travel throughout Myanmar.
"We have no human rights, including the right to an education," he said.
Official estimates put the number of people in Rakhine State identifying as Rohingya at about one million, of whom more than 100,000 live in IDP camps.
The Emergency Coordination Centre was appointed by the Union government to oversee the activities of humanitarian organisations in Rakhine after Medecins Sans Frontieres was expelled from the state in February.
