Marty: Myanmar Considering Allowing OIC to Investigate Rohingya Situation

Myanmar's Minister of Foreign Affairs Wunna Maung Lwin looks on during the Special Informal ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting on East Asia Summit (EAS) in Bangkok, Thailand in April. Foreign minister Marty Natalegawa said Lwin and Myanmar are considering allowing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretary general into its borders to investigate the situation surrounding Rohingya ethnic group. (EPA Photo/RUNGROJ YONGRIT)

Antara/ Agence France-Presse

Foreign minister Marty Natalegawa said Myanmar is considering allowing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretary general into its borders to investigate the situation surrounding Rohingya ethnic group.

Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin made the statement at a meeting with Marty on Tuesday, according to reports.

Marty said the idea of the OIC secretary general’s visit was among the suggestions made by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The Myanmarese foreign minister also said that Myanmar’s President Thein Sein received President Yudhoyono’s letter, and would immediately reply.

“The President’s letter has been handed to President Thein Sein. Myanmar appreciates Indonesia’s view as a friendly country that has long had a good understanding over developments in Myanmar,” Lwin said. Yudhoyono’s letter came after weeks of mounting calls from human rights activists, legislators and students for Indonesia to take a role in finding a solution in Myanmar.

Marty said Indonesia hopes Myanmar will be more open to the international community with regard to the Rohingya situation.

“And we, in the talks with the Myanmarese foreign minister, have reiterated the importance of Myanmar to open the region so that the international community can check directly the actual developments there,” he said.

Violence erupted in June in Rakhine state in western Myanmar between Buddhists and Rohingya, leaving about 80 people dead from both sides, according to official estimates deemed low by rights groups.

Myanmar security forces opened fire on Rohingya Muslims, committed rape and stood by as rival mobs attacked each other during the recent wave of sectarian violence, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.