March 29, 2024, 8:50 pm


Nirmal Barman

Published:
2018-05-06 16:08:09 BdST

Dhaka urges OIC to persuade Myanmar for Rohingya repatriation


FT ONLINE

Bangladesh urged the OIC member states to strengthen efforts in persuading Myanmar government to a sustainable return of Rohingyas, the world's most persecuted minorities, to their homeland in Rakhine.

"In the OIC, we should take strong actions manifesting solidarity with them and strengthen efforts in persuading the Government of Myanmar to take urgent measures for a sustainable return of Rohingyas to their homeland," said Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in Dhaka on Saturday.

"Hundreds of thousands of desperate Rohingya people are fleeing a vicious purge in Myanmar ... the exodus of Rohingya is the world's most rapid and intense crisis of forcibly displaced people since the 1994 Rwandan genocide," he said.

The Bangladesh foreign minister was addressing the 45th Session of Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC (OIC-CFM) at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the two-day OIC-CFM as the chief guest, while Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Secretary General of OIC Yousef A Othaimeen attended the inaugural function as special guests.

On the occasion, chair of the 44th CFM and Foreign Minister of C"te d'Ivoire Marcel Amon-Tanoh handed over the chairmanship of 45th CFM to Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali.

Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and representative of OIC Summit chair Bekir Bozdag also addressed the function while Vice Minister of Indonesia on foreign affairs Abdurrahman Mohammad Fachir, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir and Foreign Minister of Senegal Sidiki Kaba spoke on the occasion respectively from Asia, Arab and Africa groups.

The theme of the 45th Session of CFM is 'Islamic values for sustainable peace, solidarity and development'.

Ali said the theme is based on three pillars - peace, solidarity and development - which are interlinked. "Today, we are facing formidable challenges of Islamophobia, terrorism, extremism, conflict and inequality - within and among states".

In this connection, he referred to Palestine crisis saying the Palestinians continue to suffer from systematic violation of their human rights. Islamophobia is real and rampant and anti-Muslim prejudice has grown considerably in recent years in every corner of the world.

Foreign Minister Ali said solidarity for us refers to solidarity in terms of human individual and social-economic inclusion. "Islam was revealed to ensure the worldly and other-worldly well-being of all mankind on an equal footing. Indeed, Islam is not intended for a certain people, race or ethnicity".

The foreign minister said the well-being of all needs to be ensured through solidarity aimed at ending poverty, achieving shared prosperity and peace, and dignity.

He said development is achievable only through attaining peace and prosperity of a nation and for upholding justice, rule of law, and people's empowerment. "These inter-linkages have to be understood as a people-centric development for sustainable peace," he said.

In this regard, he suggested developing new models for cooperation that are based on best interests of the humanity. "As the world is changing in many ways - infringing upon every area of a peaceful society, life, development, we cannot do the business as usual".

In this connection, he said the OIC member countries need to re-think their work, method and process of functioning to cater to the needs of the current era and beyond. "Otherwise, we risk in situating our Organization in redundancy".

The foreign minister suggested building bridges with those non-OIC countries, so that a large number of Muslim populations do not remain untouched by the good work of OIC.

"In this fractured world, conflict ridden world, it is incumbent upon OIC leaders to foster a shared objective, a shared vision and a shared commitment for peace, solidarity and development," he added.

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