Thursday 16 August 2012

The OIC decide­d to take the Rohing­ya's issue to the UN.

Source Tribune, 16 Aug 2012

Secretary General of Oraganisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu speaks to media during a press conference at the end of an extraordinary summit of OIC, held in Mecca, on August 15. PHOTO: AFP/FILE 

MECCA: The Islamic summit decided Thursday to take the issue of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingyas, displaced by deadly sectarian violence, to the United Nations.

At a meeting in the holy city of Mecca the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned “the continued recourse to violence by the Myanmar authorities against the members of this minority and their refusal to recognise their right to citizenship.”
“The summit has decided to bring this matter before the General Assembly of the United Nations,” it said in a final statement.

The OIC announced on Saturday before the summit that it had received a green light from Myanmar to assist displaced Rohingya.
It said Myanmar gave its agreement following talks in the capital Yangon on Friday between a delegation from the pan-Islamic body and President Thein Sein on the “deplorable humanitarian situation in Rakhine state.”

The delegation assured Thein Sein that Islamic humanitarian organisations were willing to provide aid to all residents of the strife-torn state.
Saudi King Abdullah decided Saturday to grant $50 million to the Rohingya, the country’s news agency SPA reported, describing them as victims of “several rights violations, including ethnic cleansing, murder, rape and forced displacement.”

Violence between Buddhists and Rohingya has left scores dead, with official figures indicating that 80 people from both sides died in initial fighting in June.
The entire state has been under emergency rule since early June with a heavy army and police presence.

Najib says will put foot down at OIC meet

The Malaysian Insider, 16 Aug 2012

The prime minister said he will push the UN to grant recognition to the Palestinian state. — File pic
MECCA, Aug 16 — Malaysia will state its firm stand on issues in three Muslim countries at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Extraordinary Summit taking place here.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the issues were the turbulence in Syria, the recognition of the Palestine state by the United Nations (UN) and the oppression of Muslims in Myanmar.

Najib said he would touch on these issues in his speech early this morning and to state Malaysia’s stand.
“We will support a proposal to suspend Syria’s membership in OIC because the situation in the country is worsening to the extent people are losing lives and property,” he told reporters, here, yesterday.

The prime minister is heading the Malaysian delegation to the extraordinary summit that started on Tuesday.
Najib said Malaysia was of the opinion that the time had come for the government of Syria to stop the violence and to respect the rights of its people who wanted a democratic election to be held in the country.
On the issue of Palestine, he said Malaysia would press for the UN to recognise Palestine as one of its member nations.

He said OIC had to make a stand on making Palestine a sovereign nation, and a member of UN, a reality.
“The issue of a Palestine nation is an issue which is close to the hearts of Malaysians and we want Palestine to be recognised by UN at its conference this September,” he said.

Najib said Malaysia also wanted the OIC to continue to champion the lot of the Rohingya Muslims who were allegedly oppressed and victimised.

He said the OIC had set up a committee known as Fact Finding Mission Committee to visit Myanmar and get the actual information on the situation there.

“I had written to President Thein Sein and he had replied by saying that the issue (the oppression of Muslims) was not as big as portrayed by the outside world, and, as such, we wait for the report and fact finding to get complete information,” he said.

Najib said that in Malaysia alone there were more than 90,000 Rohingya refugees, and the government endeavoured to help them.
He also said he had met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and discussed bilateral relations between the two countries.

“Pakistan had asked for Malaysian private companies to invest in the industrial parks there to balance the two-way trade which is in favour of Malaysia.
“Pakistan is an importer of Malaysian palm oil, but does not have a commodity to be exported to Malaysia. I stated that the matter will be discussed in a more in-depth manner,” Najib said. — Bernama



Pakatan urges Najib to lead calls to end anti-Rohingya genocide

Source Malaysia Chronicle, 15 Aug

Concerned with the worsening plight of Rohingya Muslims in Burma, thousands of whom languish in refugee camps lacking basic facilities, Pakatan Rakyat has urged the Malaysian government, who was instrumental in ushering in Myanmar as a member of ASEAN in 1997, to demand the junta to take immediate action to stop the violence perpetrated against the community.

"Malaysia must act fast and decisively as not only has [prime minister] Najib Razak declared Malaysia is the ‘Best Democracy’ in the world but also as an exemplary Islamic country with UMNO as the largest muslim party in the world to prove that all his statements are true and not false.

"The time to show moral leadership is now," said a statement issued jointly by PKR's Nurul Izzah Anwar, DAP's Liew Chin Tong, and PAS's Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

The statement also called Malaysia to exercise its influence in ASEAN to demand the regional organisation to exert pressure on Myanmar.

It also wants Najib to urge China, who has strong trade links with Rangoon, as well as the US, which has begun reversing economic sanctions following political reforms by the junta, to "intervene and actively advice Myanmar to protect all minorities and stop the genocide".

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims were forced to flee their homes in the Arakan region of Burma in June after ethnic violence rocked the western state of Rakhine after the killing of ten Muslims in an attack by Buddhist vigilantes on their bus.

Human Rights Watch has accused Burmese security forces of targeting Rohingya Muslims with killing, rape and arrest following the unrest.
Hundreds of Rohingya men and boys have been rounded up and remain incommunicado, the group said.
-Harakahdaily

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