Kuala Lumpur to host OIC emergency ministerial meeting on Rohingyas

KUALA LUMPUR: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting here tomorrow, upon the request of the Malaysian government to discuss the situation of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.

In a statement, the OIC said that the meeting will discuss steps that the organisation and the international community should take to urge the Myanmar government to allow delivery of humanitarian assistance to Rakhine State.

“The meeting will address the root causes of the violence, and widen the scope of dialogue among the groups to ensure the return of the displaced Rohingya population to their homes in safety and dignity,” it said.

The plight of more than 120,000 displaced and refugee Muslims within Myanmar will also be discussed.

The upcoming ministerial meeting will be held against the backdrop of ongoing concerns of the OIC General Secretariat regarding the situation of the Rohingya Muslims and the continuing violence as well as the stance of the Myanmar government on the situation in Rakhine state.

In order to identify necessary measures that can be taken as prelude to convening the extraordinary meeting here, Islamic groups in New York, Geneva and Brussels had last month held emergency meetings on the same cause.

Previously, foreign ministers of the OIC Contact Group on Rohingya Muslims held their meeting on the sidelines of the Council of Foreign Ministers session held in Tashkent in October last year.

The meeting urged the Government of Myanmar to restore the citizenship of the Rohingya which had been revoked under the 1982 citizenship law. — Bernama