THE meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday ended with the call of the 57-member body for strong UN intervention to end the humanitarian crisis. The communiqué adopted at the end of the meeting emphasized immediate halt of atrocities, unhindered humanitarian access, end to discrimination, ensuring basic rights including restoration of citizenship and creating situation for sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to their homes in Rakhine State in Myanmar. But the sidetracking of participation of the Myanmar government in the meeting amply suggests they have not placed much significance to it.
The OIC in fact has not enough ammunition in its hands except asking for UN intervention and the OIC Secretary General to engage more with Myanmar, UN and other international and regional organizations to end the humanitarian crisis. We must say there is no solution in sight of the Rohingya crisis without involvement of the international community. Bangladesh must be active to mobilize international opinion in this regard.
In our view the 10-member ASEAN group to which Myanmar is a member should come up with concrete measures to protect Rohingyas in one of their member states. One can’t see it in silence because they are Muslims.
Bangladesh presented the horrific condition of the Rohingya refugees in the OIC meeting as they are desperately taking shelter in our country escaping killing, torture and rape of women when the Myanmar army is running ‘clear up operations’ torching their homes and forcing villages to be abandoned.
Malaysian Special Envoy to Myanmar Syed Hamid Abrar made similar horrific evaluation of the situation before the meeting calling for strong UN intervention to stop anymore genocide there like those in Cambodia and Rwanda in recent history. The meeting’s emphasis on greater role of the UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organizations bear significance as the Myanmar government action poses the threat to total elimination of the Muslim community in that country. This is not only a humanitarian crisis; it is a bigger human right crisis.
We are so sad that despite so many Muslim countries in the world, they carry not enough weight as united force, because they are not united but fighting each other at many places destroying themselves. Their leaders are power hungry in many countries having no touch with the people. They rather take the people as a threat to their power and taking shelter of big powers to protect family rules or continue autocratic governance over the people.
We hope the OIC meeting will be able to solicit global support to end the plight of the Rohingya Muslims but our Muslim leaders in many countries are no less responsible to make Muslims homeless in their own countries. Muslim countries must change to deserve respect.
The OIC in fact has not enough ammunition in its hands except asking for UN intervention and the OIC Secretary General to engage more with Myanmar, UN and other international and regional organizations to end the humanitarian crisis. We must say there is no solution in sight of the Rohingya crisis without involvement of the international community. Bangladesh must be active to mobilize international opinion in this regard.
In our view the 10-member ASEAN group to which Myanmar is a member should come up with concrete measures to protect Rohingyas in one of their member states. One can’t see it in silence because they are Muslims.
Bangladesh presented the horrific condition of the Rohingya refugees in the OIC meeting as they are desperately taking shelter in our country escaping killing, torture and rape of women when the Myanmar army is running ‘clear up operations’ torching their homes and forcing villages to be abandoned.
Malaysian Special Envoy to Myanmar Syed Hamid Abrar made similar horrific evaluation of the situation before the meeting calling for strong UN intervention to stop anymore genocide there like those in Cambodia and Rwanda in recent history. The meeting’s emphasis on greater role of the UN Human Rights Council and other human rights organizations bear significance as the Myanmar government action poses the threat to total elimination of the Muslim community in that country. This is not only a humanitarian crisis; it is a bigger human right crisis.
We are so sad that despite so many Muslim countries in the world, they carry not enough weight as united force, because they are not united but fighting each other at many places destroying themselves. Their leaders are power hungry in many countries having no touch with the people. They rather take the people as a threat to their power and taking shelter of big powers to protect family rules or continue autocratic governance over the people.
We hope the OIC meeting will be able to solicit global support to end the plight of the Rohingya Muslims but our Muslim leaders in many countries are no less responsible to make Muslims homeless in their own countries. Muslim countries must change to deserve respect.
