OIC to meet on Myanmar unrest

The head of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation yesterday said that ministers from OIC states will meet on April 14 in Saudi Arabia to discuss deadly violence against Muslims in Myanmar.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement that a contact committee of OIC foreign ministers would gather in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.
State media in Myanmar yesterday reported that the death toll from communal violence in the centre of the country over the past 10 days has risen to 43 with more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed.
The situation appears to have calmed since President Thein Sein on Thursday vowed a tough response against those behind the violence, which he attributed to "political opportunists and religious extremists".
An OIC statement said Ihsanoglu addressed a contact group meeting on violence against Myanmar Muslims known as Rohingya on Saturday and said the organisation was "ready to take all necessary measures and actions to deal with it".
Buddhist mobs have marauded through several towns in central Myanmar since religious violence erupted on March 20, prompting the government to impose emergency rule and curfews in some areas.
It is the worst sectarian strife since violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year which left at least 180 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced.