About 1500 people participated in a protest march in Pathein in Ayeyarwady Region against the United States Embassy for its statement, which mentioned “Rohingya”. The protest march on 18 May was organized by the Nationalist Coalition, and the members of the Race and Religion Protection Committee (Ma Ba Tha) and its ally Winthanu Rakgita Group from 26 townships in the Ayeyarwady Region were invited to join the protest march. According to a member of Winthanu Rakgita Group, the protest was led by U Tun Tun Win and other leading participants U Oo Thiha Zaw, U Khaing Zaw Lin and U Yin Lay delivered speeches at a rally held during the protest. The protesters marched on the street and they carried placards and chanted slogans “those who use the word Rohingya are our enemy” “cancel the US embassy statement right now” “we do not accept any attempt to increase the number of ethnic race in Myanmar from current 135” “those who want to create a fake ethnic group is our enemy” Stop disrespecting Myanmar’s sovereignty by using Rohingya “we urge the Union Government to issue an official rebuttal against the US Embassy’s Rohingya usage”. According to a town resident monk had not participated in the protest and among those joined the protest only a few were from Pathein the rest were from other townships including 500 people from Yangon. A message from Monk U Wirathu was read out at the protest by Kyaw Phone Myint (Rakhita Thakhin Phone Pyae). Similar protests were earlier held in Yangon and Mandalay.