Play A Positive Role to End Myanmar Violence - OIC Urges Suu Kyi

KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 (Bernama) -- The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) secretary-general has urged Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's opposition leader and a Nobel Peace Laureate, to play a positive role in bringing an end to the violence that has afflicted the Arakan state. "As a Noble Peace Laureate, we are confident that the first step of your journey towards ensuring peace in the world would start from your own doorstep," OIC head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a letter to Suu Kyi, the Chairperson of Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD). In the letter, he suggested that Suu Kyi could make the government agree to an international inquiry into the recent violence, while granting free access to humanitarian groups and international media in Arakan. He expressed his deep concern on the unabated and continuous violation of Rohingya rights in Myanmar that left thousands of Rohingyas killed, injured and displaced both internally and externally. Ihsanoglu said that the OIC, considered the second largest intergovernmental political entity after the United Nations, and its institutions, were ready to cooperate with Suu Kyi and the Myanmar government and invited her to visit the OIC headquarters in Jeddah. Reports have stated that deadly clashes occurred last month between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya in Arakan, and left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless. Ihsanoglu also congratulated Suu Kyi on being elected as a member of the Myanmar Parliament through an election that initiated the road to democracy in her country. It was also heartening to witness her acceptance speech more than 20 years after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he added. Reports said that Suu Kyi was finally able to deliver her acceptance speech at the Noble Peace Prize lecture in Oslo, Norway on June 16. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, but had been prevented from receiving it since she was kept under house arrest by Myanmar's military junta for most of the last 24 years. -- BERNAMA