Pressure mounts on Myanmar
Myanmar yesterday faced growing international pressure as a top Islamic body and a prominent body of rights groups separately demanded independent investigations on alleged state-sponsored attacks against Rohingya Muslims in its Rakhine state.
Asking the United Nations to intervene, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) Special Envoy to Myanmar Syed Hamid Albar said the crisis is no longer an internal issue but of international concern.
The conflict has left at least 86 dead and forced an estimated 66,000 people to flee into Bangladesh since it started on October 9, 2016.
The OIC pressure came as forty-one civil society organisations of Myanmar called for a "truly independent" international investigation into the situation in Rakhine, saying state-sponsored attacks against Rohingyas there have escalated in recent months.
"It's time for the government to get on board and support the establishment of an impartial and independent inquiry,” said Matthew Smith, chief executive officer at Fortify Rights, according to a news release issued by the Bangkok-based regional human rights body.
Syed Hamid said the OIC should seek UN intervention to stop further escalation of violence against Rohingyas to avoid genocide, like in Cambodia and Rwanda.
His comments come ahead of a special OIC meeting called by Malaysia yesterday to discuss measures to deal with the conflict affecting the Rohingya minority, who are predominantly Muslim.
"We don't want to see another genocide like in Cambodia or Rwanda," Syed Hamid told Reuters in an interview ahead of the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
"The international community just observed, and how many people died? We have lessons from the past, for us to learn from and see what we can do," he said.
The OIC represents 57 states and acts as the collective voice of the Muslim world.
Refugees, residents and human rights groups say Myanmar soldiers have committed summary executions, raped Rohingya women and burned homes since military operations started in the north of Rakhine State on Oct 9 last year.
Militants on that day attacked three police outposts, killing nine and prompting the Myanmar military to initiate an indiscriminate “clearance operation”.
The government of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied the accusations.
BANGLADESH TO HIGHLIGHT REFUGEE PLIGHTS
Bangladesh is participating in the extraordinary meeting of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers and will ask to exert pressure on Myanmar to bring an end to the decades old oppression on the Muslim minority, reports our diplomatic correspondent.
A Myanmar government spokesman said it will not attend the OIC meet as it is not an Islamic country.
Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the office of Myanmar President Htin Kyaw, said that UN intervention would only end up facing "unwanted resistance from local people".
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam, who will represent Bangladesh at the meeting, will highlight how the government of Bangladesh is handling the current influx of Rohingya refugees.
In addition to the new arrival of nearly 66,000, there are around 33,000 Rohingya refugees living in two camps in Cox's Bazar since 1992. On top of that, over 300,000 undocumented Myanmar nationals are staying illegally in Bangladesh fleeing persecution in the neighbouring country.
Dhaka will ask the OIC to mount pressure on Myanmar so that they compel to take back all the Rohingyas living in Bangladesh to the Rakhine state, rebuild their houses and get back to work as soon as possible.
Starting from August 2016, there were three commissions, including one led by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to probe the abuses. On January 3, Myanmar state-run media published the interim findings of a government-appointed commission, which reported no human rights violations and denied allegations of the crime of genocide.
But in a statement, Matthew Smith said none of these bodies are conducting a serious, impartial investigation into ongoing human rights violations.
In an ongoing investigation, Fortify Rights documented how the Myanmar military razed villages, killed unarmed civilians, and raped Rohingya women, among other abuses in several villages in Maungdaw.
Signatories to the statement include Action Committee for Democracy Development, Action Group on Monitoring Communal Tension, Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters, Burmese Women's Union, Center for Youth and Social Harmony, and Coexist Myanmar.
It said since October, Myanmar authorities have blocked access to affected areas in Maungdaw, denying life-saving humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of Rohingyas while also restricting access for human rights monitors and journalists.
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