OIC establishes office in Myanmar for humanitarian assistance

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has signed an agreement with the government of Myanmar to establish an office for the distribution of humanitarian assistance among the Rohingya Muslim population, OIC official spokesman Ambassador Tariq Bakheet announced Wednesday.
“The fact-finding mission dispatched by Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu signed in Naypyidaw on Tuesday an agreement with the Myanmar government for the establishment of the office. This is an important and positive development that we appreciate and warmly welcome,” he told a press conference at the headquarters of the organization in Jeddah.
The spokesman revealed that arrangements were currently being made with the government of Myanmar for a visit by Ihsanoglu. “These moves are within the efforts of the organization to implement the resolution of the fourth extraordinary Islamic summit held in Makkah during the last days of Ramadan on the Rohingya people,” he added.
The ambassador said the OIC mission in Myanmar has held a number of meetings with senior government officials including the ministers of foreign affairs, border affairs, social care and interior. “The mission has also visited the locations of the displaced Rohingya people,” he added.
The spokesman said the mission would present its report to the special contact group on Muslim Rohingyas, which will hold its first meeting in New York during the UN General Assembly to adopt suitable decisions that will in turn be forwarded to the coordination meeting of the Islamic foreign ministers in New York.
On the situation in Syria, Al-Bakheet recalled that the summit had adopted a resolution under which Syria’s membership in the organization was frozen.
The spokesman said during his participation in the meeting of the UN General Assembly, the OIC secretary-general would make extensive consultations on Syria. “The attempts of the Syrian regime to resolve the crisis by military force have flatly failed.
The regime should recognize that the good office of the UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is its last chance,” he said. Asked about the situation in Mali and the African Sahel, the spokesman said the secretary-general would attend a high-level meeting on the African Sahel that was called for by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
He welcomed the election of Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud as the new president of Somalia and said Ihsanoglu would soon visit Mogadishu.