Harsh OIC resolution on South
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Embarrassment was what the Thai delegation to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Africa faced when it attempted to tone down the OIC's resolution on Thailand's handling of the conflict in the Malay-speaking South.
The Thai mission tried hard to get the wording changed but the OIC stuck to its strong language and expressed “concern at the meagre progress achieved so far, five years after the issuance of the Press Communique in 2007”. The 2007 communique touched on empowerment for the local community and the need for greater cultural space for the Malays of Thailand’s southernmost provinces as part of the government’s measures to quell the ongoing conflict that has claimed more than 5,000 lives since 2004.
The OIC said it “regrets the continued application of the emergency law in most southern areas and the limited progress in introducing the [Malay] language of local populations as a language of instruction in the schools of the South”.
