Malaysia to host international meeting on Rohingya

KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia will host an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers on Thursday to deliberate over the current situation of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar. The one-day meeting is being held at the Malaysian government's request and will discuss steps needed to urge the Myanmar government to allow the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Rakhine State, the organization said in a statement Wednesday. "The meeting will address the root causes of the violence, and widen the scope of dialogue among the groups to ensure the return of the displaced Rohingya population to their homes in safety and dignity," it said. The plight of more than 120,000 displaced and refugee Muslims within Myanmar will also be discussed in the meeting, which is expected to be attended by foreign ministers of all 57 OIC member countries. Prime Minister Najib Razak is expected to deliver a keynote address in the meeting, according to Foreign Minister Anifah Aman. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Aman said Malaysia will ask the Myanmar government to cooperate in allowing access to Rohingyas in Rakhine on grounds of unimpeded humanitarian assistance. He said access to humanitarian assistance will be one of the three resolutions that Kuala Lumpur will push for during the special ministerial meeting Wednesday. "The other resolutions are we will push for a recognition of the measures taken by the Myanmar government in improving the conditions of vulnerable communities, including the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. "Malaysia will also push for expression of concern over the alleged acts of violence and human right abuses towards the Rohingya Muslim minority and its spill-over effects," he said. Aman said the Malaysian government had decided to call for a special meeting due to the fact that the Rohingya crisis was worsening. "We have seen the spill-over effects of the actions in Myanmar through the mass exodus of the Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh. This is a matter which is of concern to the OIC since it affects Muslims," the minister said. He said Kuala Lumpur would also come out with a final communique on the safe return of the displaced Rohingya community. Malaysia hopes the final communique would push for the Myanmar government to abide by its obligations under international law and prevent the worsening of the acute humanitarian crisis in Rakhine state, Aman said. Previously, foreign ministers of the OIC Contact Group on Rohingya Muslims held their meeting on the sidelines of the Council of Foreign Ministers session in the Uzbek city of Tashkent in October last year. The meeting urged Myanmar to restore the citizenship of the Rohingya which had been revoked under the 1982 citizenship law. Rohingya advocacy groups claim hundreds of Rohingyas have been killed in military operations in northern Rakhine since the Oct. 9 deaths of nine Myanmar border police officials, while Myanmar says just 91 people -- 17 soldiers and 74 alleged "attackers" -- have been killed. Humanitarian outfits have called for an independent probe into the initial attacks, the ongoing operations and reported rapes and rights abuses in Rakhine; rights groups and international reporters have been unable to enter the area placed under military lockdown. Since October, Malaysia has criticized Myanmar's government and military over the ongoing violence in Rakhine -- which some officials have called "ethnic cleansing" -- canceling two football matches scheduled to take place in Myanmar this month and requesting an immediate appointment with Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi. Last December, the deputy director-general of the Myanmar President’s Office responded by saying that the principles of the regional body, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- in which both countries are member states -- prohibited members from interfering in each other’s internal affairs. "We will call on the Malaysian ambassador regarding the protest and to ask if the Malaysian prime minister is participating. If so, we will monitor the event,” Zaw Htay told the Myanmar Times. Last December, Razak led thousands of rally participants -- including thousands of Rohingya, many of them refugees -- to firmly tell Suu Kyi -- a Nobel Peace laureate -- "that enough is enough". "I asked my foreign minister to immediately meet her to find a resolution to the issue but she rejected it immediately," he had said. "She told my minister that she was willing to meet on Malaysia and Myanmar bilateral issues but not on Rohingya. This is the mentality class of a Nobel Peace Prize winner." Razak also accused Myanmar’s government of having "warned" him about organizing the rally, but highlighted that the Malaysian government is "not afraid of such diplomatic pressures". Last census in 2014 shows there are some 135,000 Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, although it is not a state party of United Nations' Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 and its Protocol 1967.