OIC APPOINTS JUSUF KALLA AS SPECIAL ENVOY TO BURMA

Jakarta, 8 Shafar 1434 / 21 December 2012 (Kaladan/MINA) – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has appointed former Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla, as a special envoy to Burma to look after over the conflict involving the Rohingya community in Arakan State.

“Mr. Kalla is recently holding the post of chairman, the Indonesian Red Cross.” “The decision to appoint the envoy was made at the Fourth Extraordinary Islamic Summit in Mecca in August,” according to reports quoting OIC statement published in the websites http://www.kaladanpress.org and http://burmese.rohingyablogger.com monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)

Organization of Islamic Cooperation Secretary-General Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu would soon visit Burma as the head of a high-level delegation including OIC foreign ministers as part of efforts to stop the attacks against Rohingya Muslims, according to Ihsanoglu at Arab news on December 18.

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Addressing a press conference, the OIC Secretary-General said the visit came in response to an invitation he received from Burma President Thein Sein. “We have not canceled our pre-planned visit to Myanmar but it was postponed due to insecure conditions in the country.”

Meanwhile, in response to a letter written by OIC secretary-general Ekemeleddin Ihsanoglu, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, welcomed the OIC’s interest and support on the Rohingya issue.

In his letter, Ihsanoglu expressed the anxiety of the OIC and its member states over the state of the Rohingya Muslim minority population, which was being subjected to grave human-rights violations, repression and ethnic cleansing.

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The OIC will also be sending a liaison officer to assess the humanitarian needs of the affected people in Arakan state in Burma.

Speaking about the upcoming OIC summit in Cairo, he said Syria, Palestine, Myanmar and Islamophobia would figure high on its agenda. “We are now in the process of making necessary preparations to make the summit successful,” the secretary-general said. (T/R-014/R-006)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)