OIC Official's Visit Over Southern Thailand Conflict

BANGKOK (Thailand), May 4 (Bernama) -– Come Tuesday, a senior Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) official will visit Thailand to get first-hand information on the Southern Thailand conflict. Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand in charge of security matters Gen Yuthasak Sasiprapha said the OIC secretary-general's advisor, Ambassador Sayed Kassem El-Masry, would make the four-day trip. The OIC senior official would be briefed on the issue by the foreign affairs ministry and the National Security Council in Bangkok. The senior official would also visit Songkhla to meet the Southern Border Province Administration Centre director, army commander of the Region Fourth, Pattani governor and Islamic leaders. More than 5,000 people have died since suspected separatists resumed their armed campaign to seek independence for the three southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, eight years ago. Thailand holds the observer status in the OIC since 1998, in the 57-nation grouping which was set up in 1970. --BERNAMA