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OIC
proposes tripartite meet in Jeddah in July with Nur
By Carolyn O. Arguillas / Mindanews / 19 May 2006
DAVAO CITY – The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
delegation visiting Mindanao to look into the implementation of
the nearly 10-year old peace agreement between the Philippine
government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has
proposed a tripartite meeting in Jeddah sometime in July with MNLF
chair Nur Misuari to “work out an implementation program” to carry
out the provisions that have not been implemented “or have been
changed in a way.”
“The parties
must sit together,” Ambassador Sayed El-Masry, adviser to the
Secretary-General of the OIC and head of delegation of the OIC
Field Visit to Southern Philippines, told a meeting with civil
society at the Marco Polo Hotel late Friday night.
“For peace
to really be permanent, it has to be just. One of the parties
thinks the agreement has not been implemented.The purpose of
proposing a meeting in Jeddah is for this, (for the parties) to
sit together with open hearts and minds and only after that can we
reach an assessment of the situation,” El-Masry said, adding that
until now, there is “wide gap” between the reports of the parties
on the implementation of the peace pact. “We are trying to narrow
the gap.”
El-Masry
also reiterated the OIC’s earlier appeal to the Philippine
government to free Misuari, who has been detained on alleged
rebellion since January 2002.
Misuari
signed the peace agreement with the government in Tripoli, Libya
on December 23, 1976 and in
Manila
on
September 2, 1996.
“We honestly
think that his participation in the peace process is a catalyst to
the peace process and that his contribution will make the process
move forward,” said Masry, who had earlier served as independent
expert on human rights at the United Nations for eight year.
Masry’s
introductory statement actually preempted the appeals of the
Mindanao PeaceWeavers in a statement read by lawyer Mary Ann
Arnado.
In the
group’s letter addressed to and presented to El-Masry after Arnado
read it, the Mindanao PeaceWeavers, a coalition of eight peace
networks in Mindanao, urged the OIC to reconstitute the tripartite
body, conduct a thorough review of the peace agreement and
“exhaust all diplomatic channels possible for the Philippine
government to immediately and unconditionally release” Misuari.
“We agree.
What you have asked us to do, we came here to do the same
objectives,” El-Masry said.
Earlier, in
Cagayan de Oro on May 18, El-Masry told reporters, “we cannot look
into a real progress in the peace agreement if Misuari is not free
to see its implementation. That is why we ask the Philippine
government for his immediate release.”
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