Malaysia should pile pressure on Myanmar, says Mapim

Malaysia and Indonesia should pile pressure on Myanmar to stop the ongoing massacre that has left dozens of Rohingya civilians dead, urged an Islamic NGO.

According to reports, at least 77 Rohingya Muslims and 12 members of security forces were killed in the Rakhine state after a rebel group launched pre-dawn raids on police posts and tried to break into an army base on Friday.

Malaysian Consultative Council of Islam Organisations (Mapim) said as the closest Muslim nations in Asean, Malaysia and Indonesia have significant roles in doing so.

“Indonesia has been in contact with Myanmar and seems to have a positive engagement with the government. The President should initiate immediately a call for cease fire and negotiation for peace.

“Malaysia was a member of the UN Security Council. Its role has been significant. Malaysia should  call for an emergency seating to urge an immediate response from the UN Security Council.

“Malaysia should step in and initiate moves at the diplomatic level to stop the killings,” urged Mapim president Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid in a statement, Saturday.

Mapim said that the Asean Human Rights Declaration should be invoked to call for an emergency seating of the Asean Foreign Ministers.

“We also call for Myanmar to comply to the unanimously adopted November 2012 declaration to commit to the protection of human rights for all the people in the Asean member states,” he said.

Apart from that, Mapim said Najib should also relook at the Resolutions of the OIC Extraordinary Meeting on Rohingya January 2017 in Kuala Lumpur.

Mapim also called for UN Security Council to deploy peace troops immediately to Myanmar to halt the massacre.

“The brutal oppression by thousands of Myanmar troops in the Maungdaw district and vicinity villages will see unimaginable bloodshed. This is worse than the four month military operation in October 2016 - March 2017,” said Mohd Azmi.

Considered to be stateless and often subjected to arbitrary violence and forced labour in Myanmar, the Rohingya are considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

As of June this year, there are 59,100 Rohingya refugees registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, although unofficial estimates put the number much higher than that.

Source: The Star