OIC slams global inaction on Myanmar Muslims

Jeddah: The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu expressed disappointment over the inaction of the international community to stop the massacres, injustice and ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Myanmar government against Rohingya Muslims in the Arakan region.

In his speech at the extraordinary meeting of the OIC Executive Committee on this issue on Sunday, Ihsanoglu explained the steps being taken by OIC to protect Muslim minority in Myanmar.

He said that the neglect of the rights of Rohingyas by the international community and the lack of unity among Rohingya organizations spurred the OIC to exert earnest efforts to unite these organizations for the first time at the OIC headquarters in May 2011.

 

The OIC General Secretariat had directed its offices at the United Nations in New York to coordinate with its member states which are also non-permanent members of the UN Security Council (Azerbaijan, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo) to urge the Council to consider the plight of the Rohingyan minorities, he noted.

 

The secretary general condemned the continued repression and ethnically-motivated oppression of the Rohingyan Muslims as well as to demand restoration of their legitimate rights and request member states, particularly those with representation with the Myanmar government, to do all within their means to convince the Myanmar government to repeal the arbitrary 1982 Citizenship Law which led to withdrawal of citizenship from Rohingyan Muslims.

Ihsanoglu also urged countries, especially Myanmar’s neighboring countries, as well as Islamic organizations and bodies to provide urgent assistance to the Rohingyan Muslims.

He proposed that the Islamic Group in Geneva should dispatch and urgent request to the Human Rights Council to send a fact-finding mission to investigate the massive violation perpetrated against the Muslims inhabitants of Arakan.

The OIC Secretary General also proposed that setting up of an Islamic fact-finding committee on the events should be considered, and that a report in that regard should be submitted to the next ministerial conference. 

He also proposed that an Islamic ministerial contact group should be established to find a just radical solution to this pending issue by contacting all relevant parties, including the government of Myanmar, as well as international and regional organizations and bodies.

 

Ihsanoglu called on the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission to consider the issue at its next session to be held in Turkey at the end of August.