Thousands Join Indonesia Protest Against Myanmar Policies

Several thousands of Indonesians, led by Islamist groups, are marching in Jakarta to protest against Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

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Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims and there have been several anti-Myanmar protests in Jakarta and the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur this week. 

Roads were blocked and barbed wire barriers were put up around the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, which was patrolled by police in riot gear who set up water cannons. 

Some protesters chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest), while others shouted slogans such as "Slaughter Myanmar" and "Burn the embassy."

Sobri Lubis, a protest organizer from the Islamic Defenders Front, called for Indonesia to expel Myanmar's ambassador, the United Nations to impose sanctions on Myanmar and for Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize to be revoked.

"The world does not care so we are gathering here to show the world that the Rohingya are not alone. Indonesian Muslims will stand and fight to defend them from injustice and brutality," he said, according to the Associated Press.

Besides the protest in Jakarta, schoolchildren in Bandung and civil servants in Ambon held mass prayers while hundreds protested in Medan, Indonesia's third-largest city.

The latest eruption of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state began after Rohingya insurgents attacked Myanmar police and paramilitary posts. The clashes have killed more than 400 people and triggered an exodus of Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has called for an end to violence in Rakhine state and sent his foreign minister to Myanmar where she with met Monday with Suu Kyi and armed forces commander Min Aung Hlaing.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said she pressed them to immediately end all violence in Rakhine and promised Indonesia would respond to the crisis with humanitarian aid.

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Suu Kyi spoke by telephone on Tuesday with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has pressed world leaders to do more to help roughly 1.1 million Rohingya he says are facing genocide.

In a statement issued by her office on Facebook, Suu Kyi said the government had "already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible" and warned against misinformation that could hurt relations with other countries.

Suu Kyi referred to images on Twitter of killings posted by Turkey's deputy prime minister that he later deleted because they were not from Myanmar.

"She said that kind of fake information which was inflicted on the deputy prime minister was simply the tip of a huge iceberg of misinformation calculated to create a lot of problems between different countries and with the aim of promoting the interests of the terrorists," the statement said.

Myanmar said its security forces are fighting a "legitimate" campaign against "terrorists" responsible for a string of attacks on police posts and the army since last October. 

However, rights monitors and Rohingya accused the Myanmar army of trying to force them out of the country with a campaign of arson and killings.