YANGON - Buddhist monks protested in Myanmar on Thursday against the arrival of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) delegates this week to assess anti-Muslim violence.
The delegation led by OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, was greeted Wednesday by "OIC Get Out" placards wielded by Buddhist monks at Yangon International Airport.
On Thursday, an anti-OIC demonstration of more than 600 people, including 70 monks, was staged in Lashio, the largest city of Shan State in northern Myanmar, sources said.
Protest leader, Buddhist Monk Ankura, said Mr Ihsanoglu was in Myanmar to try to amend the 1982 Citizenship Law that excluded the Rohingya Muslim minority group in the Rakhine state from eligibility for citizenship.
The Myanmar government, and most Myanmar Buddhists, view the Rohingya as descendents of ethnic Bengalis from neighbouring Bangladesh.
There are an estimated 800,000 Rohingya living in Rakhine without citizenship or property rights, many born in the country.
Sectarian fighting broke out between Buddhist and Rohingya communities in Rakhine State last year leaving more than 167 dead, mostly Muslims.
On Friday the OIC team was to travel to the Rakhine, in western Myanmar, to visit camps for the more than 140,000 people displaced by the 2012 violence, and interview both Buddhist and Muslim residents.
The delegation is likely to run into more protests in the state's capital Sittwe.
On Thursday, more than 500 protesters gathered at Sittwe Airport to demonstrate against the OIC's pending arrival, witnesses said.
The protesters waved billboards reading, "You are not coming for Human Rights but to spread Islam'', and "Why don't you take illegal Bengalis to your own respective countries?"
Myanmar has witnessed a surge in anti-Muslim violence and riots since the country came under nominally civilian rule in 2011.
At least five anti-Muslim riots in Myanmar broke out this year, the latest in the town of Thandwe, 270 kilometres northwest of Yangon.