A six-member delegation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) arrived here today on a two-week mission to investigate the on-going conflict in Thailand's Muslim majority Southern Region that has claimed almost 700 lives since last year. "The visit of the delegation is in advance of the visit of OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu," said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sihasak Phungketkeow. The Thai Foreign Ministry invited in March the OIC to come to Thailand, which has an observer status at the 56-nation OIC, to investigate for itself allegations of abuses of Thai Muslims by the government. The advance OIC delegation will travel to Tak Bai, Narathiwat province, on Friday to interview relatives of some 85 Thai Muslims who died in a heavy-handed government crackdown on a demonstration there in October 26, last year. Of the 85 Tak Bai victims some 78 reportedly suffocated to death in army trucks, where they were stacked on top of one another as they were being taken to an army base for interrogation.
