Sunday, May 21, 2006
Moro militants urge Manila
to comply with peace accord
By Al
Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA
CITY -- The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on Saturday
urged Manila to comply with the 1996 peace agreement it signed
with former rebel group.
Muslimen Sema, MNLF secretary general and also mayor of Cotabato
City, said the government failed to honor some provisions in the
peace deal and also told the same to the visiting
representatives of the Organization of Islamic Conference headed
by international human rights expert Egyptian Sayed El-Masry,
who is adviser to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu,
"We told the OIC mission about the failure of the government to
fully implement the 1996 peace agreement and many of our members
are disgruntled about this," Sema said.
Nur
Misuari, chieftain of the MNLF, signed a peace deal with
Manila
in September 1996, ending more than 20 years of bloody fighting
in the southern
Philippines.
After the peace agreement was signed, Misuari became the
governor of autonomous region. Despite the accord, there was a
widespread disillusionment with the weak autonomy they were
granted.
Under the peace agreement,
Manila
would provide a mini-Marshal Plan to spur economic development
in Muslim areas in the south and livelihood and housing
assistance to tens of thousands of former rebels to uplift their
poor living standards. The government later granted autonomy to
five Muslim provinces in the south called the Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao (Armm).
But many former rebels were disgruntled with the accord, saying,
the government failed to comply with some of its provisions and
uplift their standards of living. They accused the government of
failing to develop the war-torn areas in the south, which remain
in mired in poverty, heavily militarized and dependent
financially on
Manila.
Some of the disgruntled former rebels have either joined the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), now the country's largest
separatist rebel group, or the smaller and ruthless Abu Sayyaf
group.
And Muslims in the south are most likely to fight for or support
an armed separatist front when they perceive no alternative
means to overcome discrimination and improve their living
conditions.
In November 2001, on the eve of the Armm elections, Misuari
accused the government of reneging on the peace agreement, and
launched a new rebellion in Jolo island and
Zamboanga
City,
where more than 100 people were killed. Misuari is facing trial
on rebellion charges.
Sema said the OIC sent a delegation this week to look into the
implementation of the peace accord and has proposed a tripartite
meeting in Saudi Arabia in July.
"The OIC wanted Nur Misuari to head the MNLF delegation to Saudi
for that meeting," he said, adding, the delegation also wanted
Misuari released from jail.
"What we need now is the religious implementation of the peace
agreement, so we can realize permanent peace and progress in the
southern Philippines. The region is neglected, the Muslims are
discriminated and many live in poverty. We need to rebuild
everything, social and physical infrastructures are important to
sustain the little peace that is left," Sema said.
Masry said the parties must sit together and discuss the
problems affecting the implementation of the peace accord. He
said the proposed tripartite meeting in Saudi Arabia is
important for the Philippines and the MNLF to finally settle the
problems.
Masry's group visited
Marawi
City on Thursday, and Maguindanao province and Jolo island the
next day and spoke separately with senior Filipino security
officials and MNLF leaders and former rebels about the
implementation of the peace agreement.
In Jolo, the delegation trekked a two-kilometer dirt road to
reach an MNLF camp in Bitanag village in Panamao town where
hundreds of armed followers of Habier Malik and Kaid Ajibun were
waiting. The two leaders led a bloody fighting last year in Jolo
that left dozens of soldiers dead and wounded.
"It is a mission of peace and we met with our MNLF brothers led
by Habier Malik and Kaid Ajibun. We talked and discussed a lot
of things about the peace agreement. The meeting is warm and
cordial and we are happy about it," said
Secretary
Jesus
Dureza,
presidential adviser on the peace process, who accompanied the
OIC team.
The OIC delagation returned to Zamboanga City on Saturday
afternoon after being delayed by heavy rains in Jolo. "The peace
agreement was not fully implemented and we need to discuss this
in the tripartite meeting," the 70-year old Masry told reporters
in Zamboanga City before flying back to Manila late Saturday.
The OIC delegation was sent to the southern Philippines
following the 32nd Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICEM)
at Sana'a Yemen last year to check on the status of the
remaining implementation requirement for peace accord.
Last year, more than 1,400 disgruntled MNLF members threatened
to abandon the 1996 peace agreement they signed with Manila
after accusing the government of reneging on its pact with the
former separatist rebel group.
"MNLF commanders all over
Mindanao
are getting restless over the perceived failure of the
government to fulfill its obligations. I am afraid that if the
government does not take this seriously, the negative sentiments
of our armed combatants can run out of proportion and might lead
to eventual abandonment of the agreement," Sema said.
The MNLF also boycotted the Armm elections last year after the
government supported Maguindanao town mayor
Datu
Zaldy
Ampatuan,
a staunch ally of
President
Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, instead of MNLF candidates.
Dureza said the visit of the OIC delegation was timely and
relevant because it will further boost peace negotiations
between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"The visit is truly another historic event as we continue to
keep track of the full implementation of the government's
commitments in the GRP-MNLF peace agreement. It will also boost
the ongoing peace negotiations between the government and the
MILF," Dureza said.
Manila opened peace talks with the MILF -- which broke away with
the larger MNLF in 1978 -- in an effort to end the hostilities
in the strife-torn, but mineral-rich region.
(May 21,
2006 issue)
