Indonesia, Turkey keen to help BD deal with Rohingya issue

Muslim-majority countries including Indonesia, Turkey and most of the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have offered help to Bangladesh to deal with the massive inflow of people from Myanmar.
 "To know the situation, OIC member countries, India and some other countries make contract with us almost every day; however, we are giving them the updates and asked them to raise their voice on the issue," a senior official of the Foreign Ministry told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.
Indonesian Foreign Minister is now in the city to talk mainly on the issue.The visit follows mounting anger in the Southeast Asian country, home to the world's biggest Muslim population, over violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, the official said.
Foreign Ministry's sources said that Bangladesh, which has 271km-long border with Myanmar, welcomes the willingness of the foreign countries to engage with Myanmar to find ways to contain the escalation of violence and find a solution to the protracted problem as soon as possible.
"Bangladesh is stressing the implementation of the recommendations of the "Rakhine Advisory Commission" led by Kofi Annan for a durable solution to the problem of the Rakhine State," State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahrier Alam said.
To oversee the situation, Indonesia's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi arrived Dhaka for talks following a visit to Myanmar , Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is coming tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss Rohingya issue, he added.
"We are trying to pressure Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi to end the crisis. We also urged the national leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end ongoing violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority there," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told her Bangladesh's counterpart AHM Mahmood Ali during a meeting on Tuesday noon at National Guest House Padma, Foreign Ministry source said.
Nearly 125,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since Aug 25, following an army crackdown triggered by attacks by Rohingya insurgents in Buddhist-majority Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state.
The Rakhine violence has killed at least 400 people, most of them Rohingya insurgents, according to the Myanmar government, leading to the exodus of Rohingyas to neighbouring Bangladesh that is struggling to cope with the influx.
About 500,000 Rohingyas are living in Bangladesh for decades as Myanmar denies their citizenship.
As of now, around 90,000 people -- mostly women and children -- entered Bangladesh after the attacks on police and army bases in Rakhine state on August 25 and the Myanmar military began crackdown.
"A 1982 Myanmar law stripped the Rohingyas of access to full citizenship. Since then members of the Rohingya community have been driven out of Myanmar. Many have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and from there to other countries, about 400,000 of them in Saudi Arabia and about 200,000 in Pakistan and most are supposed to have fled via Bangladesh," an official said quoting the IMO report.
The Myanmar government has sought to erase decades of violence and oppression against the Rohingya by citing security concerns to justify its brutal campaign, he added.
More recently concerns about the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group spreading its influence in Southeast Asia have presented the government with a welcome distraction from the atrocities it is committing.
The minister reiterated Bangladesh's readiness to assist Myanmar in addressing the security concern.