OIC to visit violence hit Myanmar in November

A group of six foreign ministers and OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu will visit Myanmar in a bid to take up the violence targeting Muslims residing in this country in two weeks.

Ihsanoglu told AA following a special session held at UN Security Council that they will visit Myanmar to make an emphasis on Rohingya Muslims’ right of citizenship in their own country.

Ihsanoglu said Rohingya Muslims were not regarded as the citizens of Myanmar (Burma) with a decision in 1982 and the second basic problem was related to their right to live. OIC Secretary General also said that he has been in contact with US President Barack Obama, EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton regarding the Myanmar issue since the first day he came into the Office and a deal with Myanmar government was reached in the end, despite the great pressure from radical Buddhist monks, to open a humanitarian aid office in this country.

Meanwhile, OIC’s permanent UN observer Ufuk Gokcen told AA that, apart from a draft penned by the EU, an OIC draft to end the violence in Myanmar will have reached UN Security Council by 1 November.

The revelation of Myanmar visit by OIC came following a special session held between UNSC and OIC thanks to an initiative by UNSC term president Azerbaijan.

More than 140,000 Rohingya Muslims had to leave their homes after their homes and workplaces were burnt down and many were massacred by radical Buddhists in 2013. The violence especially targeted Rohingya Muslims in Arakan region situated in the western part of the far eastern country.

The country was under a strict military regime between 1962 and 2011.