Dhaka, May 4 (Just News): The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has pledged a strong role in addressing the Rohingya crisis.
“We will play a strong role along with Bangladesh, United Nations and international community,” Hesham Youssef, assistant secretary general for OIC's humanitarian affairs, said after visiting Rohingya camps in Kutupalong yesterday.
Pressure should be continued on Myanmar over repatriation of Rohingyas to their homeland, he told reporters at a community centre in the area.
Youssef also regretted OIC's inadequate role since the Rohingya crisis started on August 25 last year.
In a matter of weeks, over 700,000 Rohingyas came to Bangladesh fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State, where they had been denied citizenship and other basic rights since 1982.
There has been no repatriation despite a deal signed by Bangladesh and Myanmar. The UN Security Council has also not been able to take any decisive action in addressing the crisis.
It is against this backdrop where Dhaka is hosting the 45th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers today.
A 53-member high-profile delegation of the OIC arrived in Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar around 11:30am and talked to the refugees for about an hour.
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, Special Envoy to the OIC Masud Husain and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Special Envoy to Myanmar Bob Rae and Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam accompanied the delegation.
“Rohingya crisis will be one of our main agenda in the OIC foreign minister's conference,” Youssef, also an Egyptian diplomat, said.
With 57 member states in four continents, the OIC is considered the second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations.
Rashid Al Balushi, president of OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission, said the affected Rohingyas had told them of tortures, killings and rapes.
“OIC is working on ways to address the crisis,” he said.
An aerial view shows burned down villages once inhabited by the Rohingyas as seen from the Myanmar military helicopters that carried the UN envoys to northern Rakhine State on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters
The situation of Rohingyas carry the hallmark of an organised campaign of ethnic cleansing, which is a crime against humanity under international law and must be stopped by all means, the commission said in January.
Balushi yesterday requested the UN and other aid agencies to protect the refugees who were facing risks of landslides or flooding in the coming monsoon.
“The OIC will help as much as it can to help the Rohingya.”
Hamid Hossain, a Rohingya community leader who talked to the OIC delegation, said, “We told them to help us have citizenship and safety in Rakhine. We want to go back home.”
Meanwhile, UAE Assistant Foreign Minister for International Organisations' Affairs Yacoub Al Hosani yesterday visited Kutupalong refugee camp and launched cooperation with the UNHCR in its nutrition programme, reports UNB.
With UAE support, the nutrition programme will cover the needs of 132,700 refugees, including 78,000 women and children.
(Justnews/ys/2300hr)
