OIC
exec deplores slow action on RP-MNLF pact
05/18/2006
A senior
official of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has
expressed disappointment at the slow implementation of the 1996
peace agreement signed between the Philippine government and
former secessionist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Sayed Kassem
El-Masry, adviser to OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu,
yesterday said obstacles to the peace accord must be addressed
at once.
“It’s been a
long time. We want to see progress…it’s a little bit not at the
pace that we all hope for,” he told a press conference in
Manila.
El-Masry is
the head of the five-man OIC fact-finding team that will visit
the Mindanao provinces of Lanao, Maguindanao, Davao, Zamboanga
and Sulu from May 18-21.
Joining him
are envoys and embassy representatives from OIC Committee of the
eight members Saudi Arabia, Libya, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Bangladesh and Senegal.
The OIC
official added the team will evaluate and assess the problems
hindering the full implementation of the agreement.
During their
four-day visit to Mindanao, El-Masry said they will meet members
of the MNLF, non-government organizations, representatives of
the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, officials of the
central government and officials of the rebel goup Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF).
“A
fact-finding mission will evaluate and see on the ground the
implementation of the peace agreement, what was implemented,
obstacles impeding the implementation, the complaints of the
parties, how can we help to find ways and means to fully
implement the peace agreement in the course of the approaching
10th anniversary of the signing of the peace agreement,” he
added.
“We don’t
want the date to go by without knowing what is impeding the
implementation peace agreement. We are putting our minds and
hearts together to have a satisfactory and just and full
implementation of the agreement enshrined in the peace treaty,”
he added.
The OIC
visit was scheduled a month before the organization’s
ministerial meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, in June where the
Philippines is expected to push again its observer status
application that has been pending for the last three years.
Manila’s
application for an observer status at the OIC was thumbed down
three times.
The first
one was in 2003 during the 30th OIC Summit in Malaysia, the
second time in Turkey the following year and in June 2005 at the
Islamic union’s ministerial meeting in Yemen.
The
Philippine government has been trying to wrest from the MNLF the
right to represent the Philippines’ Muslim communities in the
OIC after the secessionist rebel group and the government signed
a peace agreement in 1996.
The MNLF is
the only group recognized by the OIC as the sole legitimate
representative of Muslims in Mindanao.
Once
admitted as observer, the Philippines is expected to share the
seat with the MNLF.
The OIC
Charter states that only countries with majority Muslim
populations may be accepted as observers, but observer seats
were granted by consensus to non-Islamic states such as
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Central African Republic, Thailand and
Russia.
Sources
believe the Philippines’ application for an observer seat is not
moving forward due to the government’s failure to comply fully
with the peace pact.
They added
the OIC remains “dissatisfied” with the slowness of economic
rehabilitation of Mindanao despite financial aid from the
Islamic union and other countries.
Michaela
P. del Callar with reports from Conrado Ching
