 |
POLICE
RESTRICTION. A group of
mediamen tries to convince
Special
Action Forces policemen to allow
them to cover the arraignment of
former Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor
Nur Misuari at Fort. Sto. Domingo,
Sta. Rosa, Laguna. After a few
minutes, the media were allowed
to enter the camp but photographs
were not allowed. (Ramon I. Samson) |
The
65-year-old former governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) spoke to reporters after a court hearing at
which he had been due to be formally charged with rebellion.
"I
am innocent of the charges," Misuari said. "I hate
war, I do not want bloodshed among our people."
Misuari,
chief of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and seven
followers have been charged in connection with an uprising by
hundreds of MNLF fighters last November. Nearly "200
people" were killed in the failed revolt.
Misuari
and his co-defendants were to have been formally charged on
Wednesday but the judge postponed the hearing until May 30,
pending a defense petition for the case to be dropped.
Misuari
said if he does not get justice in the Philippines, he will
take his case to an international court.
Asked
if taking up arms remained an option, Misuari said:
"I
will defend my peoples' right to survive by any means
available to them in accordance with international law.
"Whether
the government likes it or not, Mindanao will be free,"
he said, referring to the largest island in the southern
Philippines where a majority of the predominantly Christian
country's four million Muslims live.
Misuari
signed a peace deal with the government in 1996 and he was
made governor of an the autonomous Muslim-majority region.
But
before the November uprising, Misuari had accused President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government of failing to fully
implement the peace accord.
Muslim
rebels in the southern Philippines have been fighting for
their own homeland for decades.
Two
groups - the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu
Sayyaf - are fighting for a separate Muslim state.
The
small Abu Sayyaf has been holding a US missionary couple
hostage on Basilan island for nearly a year.
US
troops are training Philippine soldiers to fight the Abu
Sayyaf which the United States has linked to Osama bin Laden,
prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
