KUALA LUMPUR: Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, while addressing a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Conference’s (OIC) council of foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday said the Muslim community across the world must “play an active role” to help Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar, Radio Pakistan reported.
Sartaj said Pakistan has always supported oppressed Muslim populations across the world, raising its voice against human rights violations in “Kashmir, Palestine and other parts of the world”.
He emphasised that “the plight of Rohingya Muslims” continues to pose a major challenge to the “conscience of the international community” and the “Muslim Ummah” must mobilise its efforts to alleviate the crisis.
Sartaj indicated that the issue was no longer a domestic issue for Myanmar and that it transcended international borders. He urged Mynamar to respect international law and accept the Rohingya Muslims as the legal populace of Myanmar.
The PM’s adviser said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wrote a letter to the United Nations secretary general, urging the international community to intensify “diplomatic and moral pressure” on the Myanmar government and “grant the requisite rights to Rohingya Muslims and provide them with relief”.
Appreciating Myanmar’s Advisory Commission on Rakhine State set up in collaboration with the Kofi Annan Foundation in September 2016, Aziz also urged the Myanmar govt to allow media access and distribution of humanitarian aid in areas affected by the recent spate of violence.
Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims are fleeing a military crackdown in western Myanmar to Bangladesh, trying to escape an upsurge of violence.