OIC envoy calls for U.N. intervention to avoid
genocide of Rohingya Muslims
BY JOSEPH SIPALAN and EBRAHIM HARRIS
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The United Nations should intervene
in Myanmar's Rakhine State to stop further escalation of violence against
Rohingya Muslims and avoid another genocide like in Cambodia and Rwanda, said
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's special envoy to Myanmar.
The conflict which has left at least 86 dead and an
estimated 66,000 people fleeing into Bangladesh since it started on Oct. 9,
2016, is no longer an internal issue but of international concern, said Syed
Hamid Albar, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Special Envoy to
Myanmar.
Syed Hamid said the OIC should seek U.N. intervention. His
comments come ahead of a special OIC meeting called by Malaysia on Thursday to
discuss measures to deal with the conflict affecting the Rohingya minority, who
are predominantly Muslim.
"We don't want to see another genocide like in Cambodia
or Rwanda," Syed Hamid told Reuters in an interview ahead of the meeting
in Kuala Lumpur.
"The international community just observed, and how
many people died? We have lessons from the past, for us to learn from and see
what we can do," he said.
The OIC represents 57 states and acts as the collective
voice of the Muslim world.
Refugees, residents and human rights groups say Myanmar
soldiers have committed summary executions, raped Rohingya women and burned
homes since military operations started in the north of Rakhine State on Oct.
9.
The government of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, led by
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has denied the accusations, saying
many of the reports are fabricated, and it insists the strife in Rakhine State,
where many Rohingya live, is an internal matter.
The military operations were in response to attacks on
security posts near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh that killed nine police
officers. The Myanmar government has said that militants with overseas Islamist
links were responsible.
A Myanmar government spokesman said it will not attend the
OIC meet as it is not an Islamic country, but that it had already made its
actions clear to ASEAN members at their last meeting in December, and that U.N.
intervention would only end up facing "unwanted resistance from local
people".
"So that's why the international community should have
a positive approach and understand widely our country's conflict
situation," said Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the office of Myanmar President
Htin Kyaw.
About 56,000 Rohingya now live in Muslim-majority Malaysia
having fled previous unrest in Myanmar.
Malaysia, which is Southeast Asia's third-largest economy,
broke the tradition of non-intervention by members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by speaking out on the conflict, calling on the
10-member bloc to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged
atrocities committed against the ethnic group.
Zaw Htay criticised Malaysia for its outspoken position on
the conflict, saying the country should manage "its own political
crisis" and "avoid encouraging extremism and violence" in
Myanmar.
“Our new government
is working seriously and carefully on the situation in Rakhine. We are working
on a very complicated and tough problem with this internal conflict, so we need
time to prevent it happening again," Zaw Htay said.
(Additional reporting by Wa Lone in Yangon; Editing by
Michael Perry)