OIC opens Summit amid new tensions

ISLAMABAD—Some 40-odd heads of state are attending the Islamic Summit in Dakar. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are among the world leaders addressing the Summit, IINA reported.
Several heads of state and leaders of the OIC member countries arrived in Dakar yesterday and today. They included Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Some countries, including Malaysia and Pakistan will be represented by their foreign ministers. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the outgoing chairman of OIC, and Pakistan President Musharraf are not attending the Summit. The OIC groups some of the planet’s richest countries, such as oil producers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, with poor African nations who languish at the bottom of UN development rankings.
The agenda of the Summit includes opening ceremony, election of members of the Bureau, adoption of the Agenda and Work Program, report of Chairman of the 10th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference, reports of the Chairmen of the Committee of Al-Quds and the Standing Committees of COMCEC, COMIAC and COMSTECH. The leaders will also discuss OIC Ten-Year Program of Action (POA) and revision of the OIC Charter. There will also be a Pledging Session for Voluntary Contributions. The agenda also includes adoption of the Report of the Ministerial Meeting.
Leaders from the world’s biggest Muslim forum started a summit here Thursday that was overshadowed by conflicts and new tensions that have stricken member nations. The 11th Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit is meant to concentrate on a campaign against ‘Islamophobia’ in the West and efforts to reform the group and increase solidarity between its 57 members. But the event opened as one member, Chad, accused rebels based in another, Sudan, of crossing the border to launch a new offensive.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was preoccupied with a car bomb in Kabul that killed six people, and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’ attention was focused on renewed Israeli attacks in Gaza. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also a key figure at the summit as he confronts tensions with the United States over its nuclear programme.
For President Mamadou Tandja of Niger, the gathering in Dakar was his first chance to leave his country in two years because of an ethnic Tuareg rebellion. The two day meeting started with Malaysia handing over the presidency of the 57 member organisation to Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade, host of the summit which was twice postponed because of construction delays.—Agencies