IPU needs to highlight Rohingya's plight - Speaker Al-Ghanim

KUWAIT, Oct 7 (KUNA) -- Kuwait will request urgent examination of the plight of Muslim Rohingya at the forthcoming conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) scheduled in a week in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the National Assembly Speaker has announced.
Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim has held talks with President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union Saber Hossain Chowdhury on Israel's breaches of the IPU constituent law and plight of the Muslim Rohingya, according to a statement released by the parliament press department on Saturday.
Emerging from the meeting with Chowdhury in Geneva, the parliament speaker said the discussions with the IPU chairman dealt with a large number of files that need to be examined at the upcoming IPU conference, due in a week in Saint Petersburg, Russia, namely the Israeli Knesset violations of the IPU charter and aggravating humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya.
"Our meeting with Mr. Chowdhury which came a week ahead of his term expiry addressed most key issues that concern the Muslims and Arabs as well ourselves the Kuwaitis," he said, noting that the IPU must take stances toward these topics namely the recurring violations by the Knesset.
The talks with the IPU chairman, he added, dealt with the massacres that have been perpetrated against the Muslims of Myanmar, indicating that he agreed with Chowdhury (of Bangladesh) that the Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation would present an emergency term about the Rohingya at the upcoming convention.
Al-Ghanim added that the meeting dealt with "coordination regarding the next IPU chairmanship," noting that the union should have teeth and power to penalize violators of the UN principles, such as the Knesset.
He expressed hope that the new chairman would follow Chowdhury's example and adopt honorable stances toward "the issues that concern us.
"We also hope that we will be able at the next conference to bury the hatchet among the Arabs and Muslims and take specific and unified stances toward the presidency, the emergency topic and the other subjects." Arab, Muslim and GCC legislators will hold consultative meetings ahead of the IPU conference, he indicated.
For his part, MP Yusuf Al-Fadhalah who attended the meeting noted that the talks with the outgoing IPU chief also dealt with the recurring aggression "by the Zionist entity in Palestine." (end) rk