With deteriorating situation of Rohingya Muslims, participants of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on science and technology in Astana on the first day of the forum on Sunday discussed the situation of the Muslim community of Rohingya in Myanmar, as well as reported plans to increase funding for their education, science and health.
Dialogue within the UN framework for Rohingya Muslims
Opening the summit, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev said that the Republic calls on the parties to the conflict in Myanmar to dialogue within the UN. “We express our concern over the recent conflict in Myanmar, and we call on all parties to immediately end the violence and to dialogue within the UN,” Nazarbayev said.
In turn, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is ready to help the Rohingya Muslims. “In Myanmar, our Muslim brothers face very cruel treatment, they are forced to leave their homes, and we must do our best to prevent this unfair treatment.” Together with the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh, we want to work together to prevent this human drama, – said Erdogan.
The topic was continued by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. He said that Azerbaijan provided humanitarian assistance to refugees from Myanmar. “We categorically condemn the crimes committed against Muslims, in particular, the recent events in Myanmar acts of the massacre and mass violence against the Rohingya Muslims,” Aliyev said. “I would like to note that on September 8, humanitarian aid in the amount of 100 tons of food was sent from Azerbaijan for Rohingya Muslims,” he said.
At the end of the discussion, OIC countries called on the Myanmar authorities to accept UN observers. “The meeting called upon the Government of Myanmar to accept the monitoring mission of the UN Human Rights Council which could conduct a thorough and independent investigation of all established facts of violation of international legislation on human rights issues and bring those responsible to justice,” the OIC chairman said in a report on the results of the meeting of the heads of state and governments on the Rohingya Muslims issue, adopted on the first day of the summit.
The situation in Myanmar deteriorated on 25 August. Hundreds of militants of the movement “Arakanskaya army of solidarity Rohinj” attacked 30 strong points of police. Over a week, the number of victims of the clashes in the west of the country exceeded 400 people, in two weeks about 150 thousand refugees from the Rohinj people left the country.
Education Support for Rohingya Muslims
Special attention was paid to the issues of science and education at the summit. The President of Kazakhstan took the initiative to create an organization from 15 advanced OIC states for the development of science in analogy with the G20.
“I think we need to create a forum, like the G20, an informal group for the development of science and economy in the Islamic world.On the advanced 15 OIC states, it was possible to create an OIS organization.15 The development of science and technology is very important for us,” Nazarbayev said. According to the leader of Kazakhstan, it would be correct to create a common scientific and innovation fund of OIC countries.
The theme of the development of education and science was reflected in the text of the Astana Declaration “Science, Technology, Innovation and Modernization of the Islamic World” adopted on the basis of the first day of the OIC summit. “We reaffirm our commitment to increasing funding for the development of education, science, health and water resources to achieve the goals outlined in the OIC Action Plan until 2025 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” the declaration says.
The document says that the establishment of the Fund for Science of the Islamic Development Bank will contribute to these goals, which will make a significant contribution to the implementation of the OIC Program for the Development of Science, Technology and Innovation until 2026.
The first ever OIC summit on science and technology is held in Astana on 10-11 September under the chairmanship of Nazarbayev. The theme of the forum is “Science, Technology, Innovation and Modernization in the Islamic World”. About 80 delegations of the OIC Member States, observer countries, as well as international and regional organizations take part in the event.