OIC mission to RP arrives in Oct.

OIC mission to RP arrives in Oct.

MANILA (AFP): A team from the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) is to visit the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, where government troops are locked in a bloody war with Muslim separatists, an official said Thursday.

The team, to be headed by Indonesia, is to arrive in the first week of October for a fact-finding mission, two months before an OIC summit is to be held in Qatar, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Lauro Baja said.

"The fact-finding team has to submit a report to the OIC summit in Doha (Qatar) in December. At least a month before the Doha summit they should have a report already," Baja told reporters.

The Philippine government, he said, was still drafting guidelines for the OIC probe, which will look into the implementation of a 1996 peace pact between Manila and a former Muslim separatist group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

The mission will also look into the living conditions of the large Muslim minority in Mindanao, where an MNLF-splinter group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is continuing with its fight for independence.