OIC Foreign Ministers group to visit Myanmar
By Hameed Shaheen
September 26, 2013
RAWALPINDI – OIC Ministerial Contact Group on Rohingya Muslims minority meeting on Wednesday (today) in New York on the sidelines of the 68th session of the UN General Assembly, decided to send a high level ministerial group to be led by the OIC Secretary General Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu soon, says an OIC message emailed to Kashmir Watch.
The meeting noted the government of Myanmar’s positive response to OIC’s request to arrange for a visit by the Secretary General and a ministerial delegation of the Contact Group on Rohingya to Rakhine State and other areas where Muslims live in Myanmar.
The Contact Group expressed the importance of forming a united opinion and coordinating initiatives expeditiously and over a long period of time. It decided to table an OIC sponsored resolution specific to Myanmar to the UN General Assembly at the 68th Session.
In his statement to the meeting, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged the member countries to push forward with their efforts to enhance active communication with the international community to implement the Makkah Summit recommendations. He expressed willingness to coordinate positions for the provision of the support needed to improve the situation of Muslims in Myanmar in order for them to recover all their legitimate rights and return to their land.
Director General of the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) Dr. Wakar Uddin also spoke at the meeting and gave an account of the latest developments in Arakan and his participation in a US congressional hearing about Muslim minorities in Myanmar last week, which was facilitated by the OIC.
The meeting called upon the OIC Secretary General to actively follow up the situation of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar within the implementation of the resolution adopted at the 4th Extraordinary Summit held in Makkah Al-Mukkaramah. The meeting also called upon OIC Member States and OIC financial institutions to contribute generously to the Rohingya Minority in Myanmar to ensure the return of the internally displaced persons and refugees to their homeland and construction activities in Rakhine State.
The meeting called upon the government of Myanmar to find a lasting solution to the plight of the Muslim Rohingya minority, including their legal status and birthrights.
