Indonesia urges ASEAN to take role regarding Rohingya: DPR

The Indonesian government should encourage ASEAN member countries to take an active role in resolving the conflict targeting the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar.

"I urge the foreign affairs minister and the president to warn the Government of Myanmar and to call on the ASEAN member countries to take an active role in resolving the conflict targeting the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar," Chairman of Commission I of the House of Representatives Abdul Kharis Almasyhari said here on Thursday.

He regretted the destruction of Rohingya villages. Such actions have violated human rights.

Indonesia, as the largest Muslim community in the world, needs to respond to the conflict soon.

"Indonesia is a country that participates in the establishment of world order and peace as enshrined in the preamble of the 1945 Constitution," he said.

"Commission I of the House of Representatives will invite the foreign affairs ministry and encourage Indonesia to end violence towards Rohingya ethnic group," he remarked.

An Indonesian philanthropist, Dato Sri Tahir, will visit the Rakhine State of Myanmar in his capacity as the UNHCRs eminent advocate for refugees, to see the current situation being faced by the Muslim Rohingya people.

In an interview at the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) office here on Wednesday, Tahir said his visit to the Rakhine State will figure as the key agenda in his schedule as the first eminent advocate for refugees in the East Asian region.

"The person in charge from the UNHCR headquarters will visit Indonesia in January 2017, and we will discuss the issue in further detail," he noted.

"Before that, I personally want to visit Myanmar to see the current situation with my own eyes, and to understand what those people need," he added.

The UNHCRs representative in Indonesia, Thomas Vargas, has described the ongoing situation in Rakhine State as worrisome, and assured that the agency would work together with the government in finding a long-term solution to the Rohingya issue.

Referring to Indonesias role in addressing the Rohingya crisis, Vargas mentioned that Indonesia hosts over 13,800 refugees, including the Rohingyan from the Rakhine State. The government has been hosting these refugees since their arrival in May 2015.

"The situation in the Rakhine State is continuing to worsen. The UNHCR has been watching it closely and at the same time we have been working together with the government to stabilize the situation there," he underlined.

Source: ANTARA