OIC to hold a Contact Group Meeting on Rohingyas

Hameed Shaheen

Kashmir Watch

March 30, 2013

ISLAMABAD - The OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) has activated its administrative apparatus to provide relief to Myanmar-uprooted Muslims. The OIC Secretary General, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, announced on Saturday in Jeddah that the his organization is planning to hold a meeting at the level of Foreign Ministers on 14 April 2013 to discuss the issue of violence against Muslims in Myanmar, says an emailed press release.

In his speech at the Contact Group meeting on Rohingya held at the OIC headquarters in Jeddah on Saturday, Ihsanoglu announced two messages, the first was directed to Muslims in Myanmar stressing that the OIC will stand in support of their cause, and that the Organization and its Member States are following up the issue and are ready to take all necessary measures and actions to deal with it. In his second message, Ihsanoglu addressed the government of Myanmar and stressed that it should put an end to the Buddhist extremists and hate campaigns, as well as ethnic cleansing that they had launched against Muslims in the country, pointing out that the OIC will take up this issue to international forums to find a full solution to it.

Ihsanoglu said that the OIC has called for the convening of this Contact Group meeting in its headquarters in Jeddah due to renewed acts of violence against Muslims in Myanmar by Buddhist extremists, which resulted in the killing of dozens of Muslims, burning of their homes, in addition to setting fire to mosques and schools and displacement of hundreds. He warned against the spread of violence, which had began in Arakan State, west of the country, and spread to other regions and cities.

Ihsanoglu called on the countries members of the Contact Group to establish contact channels with the international community to implement the recommendations of the Extraordinary Mecca Islamic Summit held last August, stressing the Group's ability to move and have an effective impact. Ihsanoglu expressed the Organization's willingness to coordinate positions in order to provide necessary support to improve the situation of Muslims in Myanmar in order to restore all their legitimate rights and to return to their land.

The Secretary General pointed out that the meeting should seek to gain the confidence of the Rohingya people, and that the international community should fulfill its promises that are not for compromise or bargain.