SAUDI ARABIA: A meeting of foreign ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah focuses on the treatment of Muslims in Myanmar

Record ID: 189167

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: A meeting of foreign ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah focuses on the treatment of Muslims in Myanmar
  • Date: 14th April 2013
  • Summary: JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA (APRIL 14, 2013) (REUTERS ) EXTERIOR OF ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION (OIC) HEADQUARTERS TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER ARRIVING TO OIC FOREIGN MINISTERS MEETING VARIOUS OF OIC FOREIGN MINISTERS SEATED WIDE OF MEETING ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION (OIC) SECRETARY GENERAL EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU SEATED SCREEN PRESENTATION SHOWING AREAS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST MUSLIMS IN MYANMAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION (OIC) SECRETARY GENERAL, EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU, SAYING: "It provides a clear indication of the negative approach which the government has been adopting in addressing ethnic and religious tensions that erupted last summer, an approach that was lightly construed by the extremists as an official approval of their atrocities and let them not only to continue their crimes, but to extend their operations to other areas." SCREEN PROJECTING PICTURES OF MUSLIM HOMES ON FIRE SCREEN PROJECTING STATISTICS OF MUSLIMS PROPERTIES DESTROYED IN MYANMAR VIOLENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ARAKAN ROHINGYA UNION, DR. WAKAR UDDIN, SAYING: "It is humanly unthinkable in this day and age how anyone on earth can commit such gruesome murders of a helpless and vulnerable community -- people who can not even defend themselves." SCREEN SHOWING PICTURES OF MUSLIM HOMES ON FIRE / CLASHES WIDE OF MEETING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ORGANISATION OF ISLAMIC COOPERATION (OIC) SECRETARY GENERAL, EKMELEDDIN IHSANOGLU, SPEAKING TO REPORTERS AT NEWS CONFERENCE FOLLOWING MEETING, SAYING: "(OIC) member states have the capacity to exert pressure on Myanmar and this is what we currently need, to have some movement on the part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in order to put pressure on the international community, the European Union and many other states. We are in contact with the American President and the American government -- if you heard the statement by Mr. Wakar Uddin, he said he is working in cooperation with the American government. We are exploring all means to put pressure on the government of Myanmar." EGYPTIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMED KAMEL AMR SPEAKING TO ONE OF HIS AIDES WIDE OF MEETING IRANIAN, SAUDI AND DJIBOUTI FOREIGN MINISTERS SEATED DURING MEETING OIC SECRETARY GENERAL THANKING MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES / LEAVING NEWS CONFERENCE HALL
  • Embargoed: 29th April 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA51XBOHDAQ5R4W7YWROODYWTM0
  • Story Text: Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states must exert pressure on the government of Myanmar to stop the killing of Muslims, OIC's secretary general told a news conference after a meeting of its foreign ministers in Jeddah on Sunday (April 14).
    Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said persistent violence against Myanmar's Muslim population was indicative of the government's poor handling of the situation.

    "It provides a clear indication of the negative approach which the government has been adopting in addressing ethnic and religious tensions that erupted last summer, an approach that was lightly construed by the extremists as an official approval of their atrocities and let them not only to continue their crimes, but to extend their operations to other areas," he said.
    Violence between Buddhist Rakhines and Muslim Rohingyas has gripped Myanmar since last summer, the country's biggest test since a reformist government replaced a military junta in 2011.
    In October 2012, the United Nations (UN) said more than 97 percent of the 28,108 people displaced by the violence were Muslims, mostly stateless Rohingya. Many lived in camps, adding to 75,000 mostly Rohingya displaced in June after a previous explosion of sectarian violence killed at least 80 people.

    "(OIC) member states have the capacity to exert pressure on Myanmar and this is what we currently need, to have some movement on the part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in order to put pressure on the international community, the European Union and many other states," Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, OIC secretary general said.

    "We are exploring all means to put pressure on the government of Myanmar," Ihsanoglu added.
    Last week, a Muslim businessman, his wife and an employee were sentenced to prison after an altercation at their gold shop led to anti-Muslim riots in which at least 43 people were killed in Myanmar last month.
    Shop owner Tun Tun Oo, his wife Myint Myint Aye and an employee, Nyi Nyi, were each jailed for 14 years on Thursday (April 11) for assault and theft after an argument with a customer turned violent, according to the state-run Kyemon newspaper.
    Sectarian violence threatens to derail political and economic reforms in Myanmar, which was ruled for decades by military regimes that brutally suppressed dissent.
    Lifting restrictions on freedom of speech has allowed political dialogue but has also unleashed anti-Muslim rhetoric by radical Buddhist monks, delivered in speeches and then distributed through DVDs.
    Witnesses said monks led some of the mobs and took part in the killings in the central Myanmar town of Meikhtila.
    In an April 10 report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said 8,441 people displaced by the violence remained in seven camps.
    It said displaced people had been allowed to return to their damaged houses since April 6 to search through debris before the land was cleared to make way for rebuilding.
    The government said 1,594 houses in and around Meikhtila were destroyed or damaged by arson.
    Myanmar's Buddhist-majority government regards the estimated 800,000 Rohingyas in the country as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and its laws deny them citizenship. Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992. The United Nations calls them "virtually friendless in Myanmar".
    The violence started in northern Rakhine State and spread south to the town of Kyaukpyu, an area crucial to China's energy investments in Myanmar, where satellite images show an entire Muslim quarter was razed by fires.
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