Iranian President:

Heads of OIC Member States to Discuss Plight of Muslims in Myanmar

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the heads of the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) plan to hold a separate meeting in Kazakhstan about the ongoing “human tragedy” in Myanmar.

News ID: 65883

Date: 09 September 2017 - 22:33

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Saturday before his departure for the Kazakh capital of Astana, Rouhani said on the sidelines of the First OIC Summit on Science and Technology, the heads of state will examine conditions of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

"Today, a major human tragedy and ethnic and ideological cleansing is taking place in Myanmar and hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been displaced in this region,” he said, adding that the Muslim world cannot remain silent on the measures taken by the Myanmar government.

He further emphasized that international organizations should impose pressure on the Myanmar government and army to prevent the oppression of the Rohingya Muslims.

Heading a high-ranking delegation, President Rouhani left Tehran for Astana to take part in the First OIC Summit on Science and Technology due to open in the Kazakh capital on Sunday.

Rouhani is slated to deliver a speech at the OIC summit and meet with some heads of state of the Muslim countries during his two-day visit to Kazakhstan.

The Rohingya have long faced severe discrimination and were the targets of violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people from their homes to camps for the internally displaced.

Over the past days, intensifying clashes between security forces and insurgents in western Myanmar have sent about 270,000 terrified civilians scrambling toward the Bangladesh border in a desperate search for refuge.

A United Nations report in February said the military crackdown on the Rohingya had led to gang rape, the killing of hundreds of civilians and the forced displacement of people.