A senior official of the 54-nation Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Thursday said in Islamabad that member states may contribute to a United Nations-mandated multinational security force for Afghanistan. ''I am sure they will not hesitate if asked (to participate),'' OIC secretary general Abdelouahed Belkeziz told reporters after talks with Pakistani leaders.
Belkeziz extended support to the interim political set-up for post-Taliban Afghanistan agreed to in Bonn by Afghan factions and appealed to the international community to help rebuild the war-devastated country. ''We are a political organisation without military power. But we did say that the campaign be directed against terrorism, not against the people of Afghanistan,'' he said when asked why the OIC failed to ''defend the helpless Afghan people'' against the United States' war on terrorism in the country.
OIC also called on the United Nations to investigate the massacre of the pro-Taliban prisoners of war in Mazar-e-Sharif, he said.
''We can do what is within our possibilities and our framework,'' he added.
Bureau Report