OIC Raising Rohingya Plight at UN General Assembly in New York

New York, MINA – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will raise the plight of Myanmar’s long-suffering Rohingya Muslim minority during the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

One of two special side events focusing on the issues of citizenship, accountability and repatriation of refugees, was organized on Tuesday, during which the OIC Contact Group on Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar held a meeting on the follow-up on the decisions of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) conference that took place in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on May 5-6.

According to the OIC statement quoted by MINA, Wednesday (26/9), the other special event is a high-level meeting on the Rohingya to be held on Thursday with the attendance of senior officials including Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and OIC Secretary General Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen as well as senior officials from the United Nations and the European Union and heads of delegations and international organizations.

On September 17, the UN Fact-Finding Mission released a report providing clear and credible evidence of mass killings, ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya people, and called for Myanmar’s officials to be prosecuted for their military crackdown on the country’s Muslim minority that started late August 2017.

The report states that Myanmar’s army had taken actions that “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”, driving more than 730,000 Rohingya to flee across the border into neighboring Bangladesh.

The OIC strongly condemns all violations and abuses of human rights in Myanmar, as set out in the report of the Fact-Finding mission including widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations and abuses committed in Rakhine State, including the presence of elements of extermination and deportation and systematic oppression and discrimination of the Rohingya.(R/R04/RS5)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)