In a sign of improved ties between Thailand and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), a high-level OIC official paid a visit to Yala last week on the occasion of Idul Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice.

Tahir Saif, who serves as official representative of OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, took part in charitable activities connected with the festival on October 14th.

He also met with the head of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC), Police Colonel Tawee Sodsong, and offered words of encouragement for SBPAC's efforts to help end insurgent violence in the Deep South that claimed over 5,500 lives since 2004.

Speaking through an interpreter in a press conference at SBPAC, Saif said, "The OIC has come to the area to meet with local religious leaders to try to find ways to end the unrest here, listening to the opinions of people on a variety of different aspects of the problem, visiting orphans and other needy youths who have been affected, and making donations of things to help them. We are also taking the opportunity to meet and discuss possible solutions to the unrest in the region with the SBPAC secretary-general, listening to recommendations and collecting information to report back to the OIC board."

Saif, also deputy head of the OIC's Minorities Department, donated money and goods for some of the many religious and cultural projects led by the SBPAC in the region, including clothes for orphaned children and linoleum mats for prisoners in Yala Provincial Prison as part of the Idul Adha tradition.

In addition, he provided financial support for the work of local imams and other Muslim leaders on the Yala Provincial Islamic Council.

Accepting a check for 900,000 baht ($29,000), Yala Provincial Islamic Council chairman Sama-Air Hari said the funding would be used to provide grants to more than 500 orphans and other needy children in the province.

"On behalf of orphaned children and all our Muslim brothers and sisters throughout Yala, I would like to thank the OIC representative for coming to visit us and bringing so much happiness to our youth on this occasion, because these children often miss out on social opportunities," Sama-Air said. "Thank you so much, sir, for recognizing the potential of these kids and helping them have a means of achieving it."

Jaran Maluleem, who heads the Department of International Relations at the Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University in Bangkok, told Khabar: "In my opinion, the recent visit of a delegate from OIC to the SBPAC office, as well as celebration of Idul Adha in Yala by them, is a positive move towards peace and prosperity in the restive south, because the people in the Deep South recognise the OIC as a very important player for peace."

He added: "This is especially true in regard to recent peace talks between the Thai government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), which would like the OIC to play a role as mediator along with other bodies such as ASEAN and the government of Malaysia."

The Thai government delayed indefinitely a fourth round of peace talks with the BRN, one of several rebel outfits in the Deep South, saying the group must first identify the cause of a recent surge in regional violence and control its own dissidents.

Peace talks got under way in Kuala Lumpur in March.