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OIC urges Myanmar to pursue reforms
Sunday | 17/11/2013 - 08:16 AM
OIC urges Myanmar to pursue reforms

Rohingya News Agency‏ – ‏‎(Bangkok Post): ‎The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) urged Myanmar to ease restrictions on "fundamental freedoms," after assessing the plight of the country's Rohingya Muslim community, media reports said Sunday.

The statement came after an OIC delegation, led by Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, spent four days in the country, at the invitation of President Thein Sein, who met them on Saturday.

"The Delegation called upon the Government to continue legal reforms, including repealing laws restricting fundamental freedoms," Thein Sein said in a statement carried by The New Light of Myanmar on Sunday.
Sectarian violence in the Rakhine State in the west of the mainly Buddhist country last year left at least 167 dead, mostly Rohingyas.

The group is excluded from those eligible for Myanmar citizenship by a 1982 law. Myanmar considers Rohingyas, some of whom have been in the country for generations, to be ethnic Bengalis from neighbouring Bangladesh, many of whose ancestors were brought to the Rakhine during the British rule as labourers from 1824 to 1948.
The OIC, a pan-national organisation of Muslim states, stopped short of criticising any particular legislation.

It promised aid to Myanmar, one of the world's least developed countries, but called on it "not to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity and religion in the provision of humanitarian assistance."
The visit saw daily protests by Myanmar Buddhists who viewed the visit as interference in internal affairs.

On Friday around 4,000 people protested at Sittwe Airport, Rakhine state, when the delegation arrived to visit Rohingya refugee camps.
In addition to those killed, another 140,000 mostly Rohingyas were left homeless by last year's clashes.

Muslims account for about 5% of the 62 million population. There are around 800,000 Rohingyas in Rakhine State, mostly in the northern townships bordering Bangladesh.




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