UPDATE - Amid repatriation attempts, OIC chief visits Rohingya in Bangladeshi camps

UPDATES WITH COMMENTS FROM BANGLADESHI FOREIGN MINISTER

By Md Kamruzzaman and SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – The chief of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday visited the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh's southern border district of Cox's Bazar to assess the living conditions of the persecuted community, according to official and local sources.

The secretary general of the world's biggest Islamic platform, Hissein Brahim Taha, exchanged views with the Rohingya refugees at Ukhia camp in Cox's Bazar, saying the organization is always active in protecting the interests of the persecuted Rohingya.

“OIC wants a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis and is working through diplomatic channels for a safe, dignified, and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya to their home country (Myanmar's Rakhine State),” Rohingya community leader Tozibur Rahman told local media, quoting the OIC secretary general as saying after the meeting.

Taha said the OIC is supporting a genocide case against Myanmar's military Junta filed by the African Muslim state of Gambia before the world's top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In November 2019, Gambia filed a case before the ICJ alleging that Myanmar’s atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine State violate various provisions of the Genocide Convention.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

During the meeting, Rohingya community leaders urged the OIC to put due pressure on the Myanmar government for restoring their citizenship rights and punishing those responsible for genocide against the Rohingya community.

Currently, Bangladesh is hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya in 33 congested camps in Cox's Bazar. They fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State in August 2017, turning the Cox's Bazar refugee settlement into the world's largest refugee camp.

Earlier on Sunday, the OIC secretary-general met Bangladeshi's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen in the capital Dhaka and discussed the Rohingya crisis.

After the meeting, he told the local media that the OIC has called upon all its member states to join the genocide case against Myanmar in favor of the Rohingya.

"This case is a top priority for us," the visiting OIC leader said.

On Sunday, Taha also met Bangladeshi Premier Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, who sought OIC’s support to ensure the safe and dignified repatriation of the Rohingya.

The OIC leader, who arrived in Bangladesh on Saturday on a five-day visit, also planted a sapling at a Rohingya camp and observed different facilities in the makeshift tents.

- ‘Unfulfilled promises by US, Canada’

Following a meeting with visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Dhaka, Momen expressed regret on Monday over the failure of the US and Canada to fulfill their promises to take some of the Rohingya Muslims who are currently living in Bangladesh's southeast coast back to their respective countries.

Speaking with reporters, he alleged that Canada and the US assured Bangladesh of solving the Rohingya crisis and taking some Rohingya refugees. But Canada took only nine, and the US took 26 Rohingya so far, he added.