A senior member of the Race and Religion Protection Committee (Ma Ba Tha) said his group will defend the race and religion protection laws, which it believed were necessary to protect the race and religion of the state. U Ti Law Ka made the comment on 4 June at a conference held to mark the 3rd anniversary of the establishment of the committee. He said protection of race and religion are important for the country and Ma Ba Tha will do whatever it could to protect the four laws, which were passed by the Myanmar parliament late last year. The laws include ban on interfaith marriages and practice of polygamy. Also the law to prevent religious conversion. The four laws were initially drafted by Ma Ba Tha and are widely seen as tools to discriminate against Muslim minority in the country. A policy statement issued at the end of the three days conference on 5 June called for paying special attention to defend the Buddhist religion as well as to implement the 1982 Citizenship Law and proclaim that there is no Rohingya community exist in the country. These points were stressed in the two statements issued at the end of the conference. The conference was held during 3 to 5 June at the Aung San Tat Oo monastery in Insein at the outskirt of Yangon.