Members of Solidarity for Palestine - a regional coalition comprising 29 non-government organisations - are perplexed as to why copies of their memorandum went missing for a second time from the Putrajaya convention centre today.

The copies were hand delivered to the centre -which is hosting the Organisation for Islamic Conference (OIC) summit - by a four-member Malaysian delegation from the coalition.

One of the delegates, Yap Swee Seng said he was puzzled by the incident and added that his delegation was warmly received by the conference secretariat chief Mohd Yusof Ahmad this morning.

He said the secretariat also permitted them to leave their copies at the information counter.

"He gave an assurance and allowed us to leave the copies at the table so that summit delegates and journalists could pick them up. Mohd Yusof also received a copy on behalf of OIC secretary-general Dr Abdelouahed Belkeziz ( photo ).

"He also commended the initiatives of the civil society in supporting the cause of the Palestinians and endorsed the memorandum. He also asked his secretary to take us on a tour of the convention centre," said Yap when contacted.

Stack missing

Following this, he said the delegation left about 100 copies at the counter and proceeded with the tour.

However, when they returned about 15 minutes later, the stack was missing.

Later, Yap said they noticed a security personnel seated at another table with the copies covered with a newspaper next to him.

"We asked him why he took away our memorandum and he said he removed it because he didn't know what the memorandum was about," he said.

The delegation then lodged a complaint with Mohd Yusof and the police officer in charge of security. They were then allowed to return the copies to the information table and were assured that it would remain there.

"However, we were informed later by a friend at the centre that the copies were removed after we left," claimed Yap, who is also with the human right organisation Suaram.

"We don't know what is the real reason behind this or whether it is merely a coordination problem between the secretariat and the security," he added.

25-point memo

Due to this, he said the coalition will send copies of the memorandum to the participating nations' embassies so that it reaches the respective leaders.

Among others, the 25-point memorandum, called all OIC members to commit themselves to a United Nations framework in returning Palestine to the UN agreed territories of 1967.

It also called for the recognition of Palestine and Israel as two separate states that should co-exist peacefully.

Apart from Yap, the others in the delegation were S Arutchelvan from Suaram, Jerald Joseph from Pusat Komunikasi Masyarakat and K Arumugam from the Group of Concerned Citizens.

When contacted, Mohd Yusof said he was unaware that the copies of the memorandum had gone missing again.

He said the first incident was due to 'miscommunication' as the coalition had not written an official letter to the security department to seek prior approval.