OIC summit facing sensitive issues

Don Pathan, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

It is not very often that the 57-member states of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) can agree on something. But thanks to the Thai government's mishandling of the violence in the three Muslim-majority provinces in the South, the OIC is likely to finally have an issue behind which most, if not all, of its member states can rally.

The upcoming OIC meeting is expected to hear all about the harsh situation facing the Thai Muslims living in the deep South, a vast majority of whom are ethnically Malay.

Official Thai sources said there is a very good chance that separatist groups will be permitted to raise the case of southern Thai Muslims before the OIC ministerial meeting later this year, when topics such as the Tak Bai massacre and the storming of the Krue Se Mosque will be on the agenda.

They said Malaysia, the current OIC chair, had been instrumental in getting these issues on the table.

Moreover, given the level of violence in the region and the Thai government's unconvincing responses to the growing chorus of criticism from the international community, one can be sure that the plight of Thailand's southern Muslims will find a few sympathetic ears when the OIC foreign ministers gather.

Thailand, in its capacity as an official OIC observer, is expected to attend the gathering. The Thaksin government has for the most part ignored the group's meetings, that is, until the violence in the Muslim South started receiving international attention.

One of the crucial issues in this case is who has the authority to speak on behalf of the people in the three southernmost provinces.

OIC norms permit Muslim groups from non-Muslim countries -- such as the Moros from Southern Philippines -- to have some sort of official presence at its meetings so that they can make their case.

For the time being, the OIC is said to be considering which exile groups or individuals it would permit to speak on behalf of Thailand's Muslim-majority South.

Regardless of who is selected to play this role, exile groups such as the Pattani United Liberation Organization (Pulo), the New Pulo, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional and so on, will have a new lease on political life now that the plight of the southern Muslims has reached the level of an international forum.

However, with sympathetic ears come headaches for Thai diplomats in Muslim countries as well as political and financial support for the exile groups.

Wan Kadir, or Dr Fadir as he is known among his associates and friends, immediately comes to mind as one of the more visible faces to have emerged from the troubles in the South.

The head of Bersatu, an umbrella organization that groups a number of Thai Muslim separatist and exile organizations under one network, told The Nation in an interview in Malaysia last May that he had given up his armed struggle. He said he no longer desired a separate homeland for the Malays in the three southernmost provinces of Thailand and would like to return to the Kingdom to work for a peaceful conclusion to the long-running troubles that have plagued the South.

But bickering among political heavyweights forced Thaksin to shelve the idea. Malaysia, where Wan Kadir was working as a university professor at the time, told him to return to Europe and lie low.

That was in May last year. Today, a number of Thai officials still think it would be good to have him back in Thailand.

The idea, said several officials, is to show Muslims that the country is open-minded enough to let him come back and start working toward ending the chapter from which Wan Kadir emerged as a key player.

At the same time, the current generation of underground separatists, which has been characterized by its use of radical and militant methods, will have to be dealt with accordingly.

Over the past 14 months, more than 600 people have fallen victim to the violence in the region, and the authorities do not seem to have a clue as to how to curb this new emphasis on violence.

Bangkok made a big mistake by ignoring the OIC over the past four years. The admission into the organization as an official permanent observer was a stamp of approval for the predominantly Buddhist country's handling of the Muslim minority.

But today, this is no longer the case. The government's all-or-nothing attitude has effectively forced the issue back onto the OIC table and could very likely open a new chapter in the history of Thailand's restive South.