By Abdoulie John
The Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ad Hoc Ministerial Committee on Accountability for Human Rights Violations Against the Rohingya ended Sunday its meeting in The Gambia with a renewed commitment to apply more pressure on Myanmar as the Muslim minority continues to face persecution.
“The OIC must not leave it to others alone to demand accountability for crimes committed against fellow Muslims, especially when the affected Muslim community constitutes a minority in a State as the Rohingyas are in Myanmar,” said The Gambia’s Justice Minister Aboubacarr Tambadou in a statement delivered during the inaugural meeting of the OIC Ad Hoc Ministerial Committee held at Labranda Coral Beach Resort & Spa in Brufut.
Last year, the forty six session of the Council of Foreign Ministers adopted in Abu Dhabi (U.A.E) a resolution establishing the Ad Hoc Committee with a mandate to hold accountable the perpetrators of gross human violations mounted against the Rohingya and put an end to the cycles of violence in Rakhine State of Myanmar.
Tambadou added that the Rohingya crisis provides the OIC with a unique opportunity to assert its leadership role in matters affecting Muslim minority communities across the globe.
These minority groups, he argued, deserve the collective voice, support and solidarity of the OIC. He then added: “The OIC must therefore speak for them. When international crimes are committed against them, it must be the responsibility of the OIC to lead international calls for accountability.”
Since 2015, hundreds of housands of Rohingya refugees have flooded into neighbouring Bangladesh. A situation that has created a deepening humanitarian crisis.
The Bangladesh Minister for Foreign Affairs, Md. Shahriar Alam, call for a sustainable solution to prevent a recurrence of a crisis that has been going in Myanmar for over decades. He said Myanmar authorities have to deliver on their international obligations.
The meeting, which was attended by a panel of experts, adopted series of measures that would be tabled before the Council of Foreign Ministers in March this year in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Ends