Rohingya Crisis: OIC for interfaith dialogue

Visiting OIC Secretary General Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen yesterday suggested holding an interfaith dialogue between Muslim and Buddhist religious leaders of Bangladesh and Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya crisis.

“The dialogue will help develop a better understanding among them [leaders] and resolve the Rohingya problem,” he said during a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said the OIC secretary general thanked Bangladesh for giving shelter to Rohingya refugees, reports UNB.

Hasina said the problem started in 1991 and there were around four lakh undocumented Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh now.

The Bangladesh government already designated an island to shelter Rohingya refugees temporarily so that they can live in better conditions, the PM added.

The secretary general of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) denounced terrorism and extremism saying Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.

He appreciated Bangladesh's tremendous socioeconomic development under the leadership of Hasina.

About Bangladeshi expatriate workers, Yousef said they were resilient, hardworking and professional.

He expressed happiness that Bangladesh is going to host OIC Foreign Ministers' Conference and OIC Tourism Ministers' Conference next year.

Yousef said his organisation would be happy to participate in any women development programme in Bangladesh. The OIC was likely to introduce scholarship programmes for the students of its 57 member states in the fields of science, technology and medicine, he added.

PM's International Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi and PMO Senior Secretary Suraiya Begum were present, among others.

ROHINGYAS MUST HAVE CITIZENSHIP

Appreciating the United Nations for its role in resolving the Rohingya crisis, the OIC secretary general yesterday said the Rohingyas must have full citizenship and basic rights.

“Rohingya people are being denied their basic human rights. They need to be recognised and given identity. They must return to their country and must have full citizenship,” Yousef said.

He was talking to reporters after meeting Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali at his ministry office. Yousef called upon the Myanmar government to come up with a roadmap to a peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis.

The OIC secretary general also called on President Abdul Hamid at the Bangabhaban in the afternoon.

During the meeting, the president urged the OIC to mount pressure on the Myanmar government to take back Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh.

Yousef is due to visit the Rohingya refugees at Kutupalong Camp in Cox's Bazar to see the plight of the Myanmar Muslim minority people and to express sympathy and solidarity with them.

Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh over the last three decades whenever there had been a crackdown on them by the Myanmar security forces.

Some 75,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh since the latest crackdown began on October 9 last year.

The OIC secretary general arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday night on a four-day official visit to Bangladesh.

A former social affairs minister of Saudi Arabia, Yousef was elected as the OIC secretary general on November 17 last year.