Gov’t, OIC agree: Misuari important for peace in Mindanao

First posted 12:23pm (Mla time) May 24, 2006
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQ7.net, Agence France-Presse

(UPDATE) MUSLIM leader Nur Misuari is important for peace and development in Mindanao, the government and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) agreed following an OIC review of the 1986 accord between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

"The early resolution of the pending case against Chairman Nur Misuari, within the framework of the Philippine judicial process, will have a positive effect in the common effort to bring peace and development in Mindanao," according to a joint communiqué of the government and the OIC expanded mission released in Malacañang Wednesday.

The communiqué also said that the OIC expanded mission hoped that Misuari would be able to participate in the tripartite meeting in Jeddah.

It also sought:

• A high-level tripartite meeting composed of the government, MNLF, and OIC that would review the implementation of the decade-old peace accord;
• The continued bid of the Philippines for observer status in the OIC; and to make the "gains in the government-MNLF peace agreement and the government-MILF cooperation now taking place converge to maximize and bring comprehensive peace and development for the Bangsamoro people."

Dates for the proposed meeting, which is to be held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and will also include rebel representatives, are being firmed up but it should be "set as soon as practicable," the communiqué said.

Manila and the OIC will hold a "preliminary meeting" on the sidelines of an upcoming foreign ministers' meeting by Islamic nations to be held in Azerbaijan next month, the statement said.

Sayed Kassem El-Masry, adviser to the OIC secretary, led an OIC delegation that visited areas in Mindanao to check on the progress of the peace pact. He had called for the release of Misuari to help peace talks in Mindanao.

The government however said the Muslim leader’s freedom was up to the court handling his case. He is in jail for leading a short-lived rebellion in 2001.

Then MNLF chairman Misuari signed a peace treaty with the government in 1996 to end decades of fighting in Mindanao, which the country's Muslim minority considers their ancestral homeland.

The MNLF is recognized by the OIC as representative of the Filipino Muslims. An MNLF breakaway group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, is conducting its own peace talks with the government.

Under the government peace pact with the MNLF, Misuari agreed to a limited autonomy rather than a separatist state and for former rebels to be integrated in the police and military forces.

Misuari became governor of the autonomous area but in 2001 his followers, allegedly on his instructions, carried out simultaneous attacks on government targets that killed more than 100 people.