Indonesian Minister Urges Myanmar To Respect Rohingyas

Seorang pengungsi Muslim etnis Rohingya, Myanmar mengenakan ikat kepala ketika ikut unjuk rasa yang digelar sejumlah elemen masyarakat terkait Muslim etnis Rohingya, di Medan Sumatera Utara. (ANTARA FOTO/Irsan Mulyadi/Dok).

Myanmar must respect the human rights (of all its citizens), regardless of their ethnicity and religion. Rohingya Muslims must be protected.

Jakarta, Sept (Antara Megapolitan-Bogor) - Indonesia's Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has urged the Myanmar authorities to respect the human rights of Rohingya ethnic minorities, who suffer due to the violence from the country's military.

"Myanmar must respect the human rights (of all its citizens), regardless of their ethnicity and religion. Rohingya Muslims must be protected," the minister said in a press statement released on Saturday.

The humanity tragedy has become a major cause for concern, particularly because it happened when Muslims from all over the world were performing hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, he stated.

The minister asked all sides to exercise self-restraint while responding to the conflict. The Indonesian government has taken a number of proactive and productive steps to contribute to the settlement of the Rohingya issue by facilitating the creation of Indonesian Humanity Alliance for Myanmar (AKIM), which is made up of 11 mass organizations and humanitarian institutions.

In addition, the Indonesian government has also urged the Myanmar government to restore security situation, refrain from the use of violence, protect the Rohingyas, and give them access to humanitarian aid, he noted.

Indonesia also supported any effort to implement former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's recommendation to deal with security issue in Myanmar, he noted.

He remarked that Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has also contacted several parties, including UN Secretary General Antonio Guteres and her counterparts, from friendly countries.

The government has also made efforts to help overcome the humanitarian crisis by cooperating with mass organizations.

Some 400 people, most of whom were Rohingya Muslims, died in the latest violence, according to the army chief's office on Sept 1, 2017. The UN noted that 38 thousand people had sought refuge across the border in Bangladesh to escape the worst violence in Myanmar's northwest in at least five years, according to AFP, as quoted by dailymail.co.uk.

Reported by Anom Prihantoro.

EDITED BY: Suharto.