Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Islamic confab exec seeks
unity between 2 Moro fronts
A
HIGH-ranking official of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) said the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)
and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have to iron out their
differences that push them away from each other.
In a forum recently in
Davao
City,
Egyptian ambassador and OIC adviser Sayed Kaseem El-Masry, said
the OIC sees that it is important for the MNLF and MILF to
reconcile.
"We are working on the reconciliation between the MILF and MNLF,
they should unite again," El-Masry said.
The MILF is a group, which split from the MNLF in September
1977.
El-Masry added that the peace agreement, which is yet to be
signed by the government and the MILF, will be instrumental in
the full implementation of the 1996 peace pack signed by the
government and MNLF.
Palace officials announced that they are expecting to sign a
peace agreement with the MILF before the year ends.
The 1996 MNLF-GRP
peace agreement, on the hand, is now the subject of an
assessment by the OIC mission composed by the committee of the
eight.
"Any problem with the agreement that the government will sign
with the MILF will matter. But it will help the other agreement
otherwise," El-Masry said.
But the MILF quickly took a defensive stand, saying they do not
keep any bad feelings against the MNLF, enough for them to
extend a reconciliatory hand.
Khaled Musa, deputy chair of the MILF Committee on Information,
said the idea of reconciling the two Moro fronts is not a very
correct description.
He, however, admitted that the MILF is not actually in speaking
terms with some factions of the MNLF.
Musa said they are in fact closely working with some of the MNLF
factions for the development of the Bangsamoro communities even
with the change of the leadership of the MNLF.
"Theoretically unity is very easy to do even by merely signing
an instrument of unity, but how to act together in pursuit of a
common agenda with varying framework is very difficult. A real
unity must emerge from oneness of ideas," Musa said.
He added, "But the MILF is not against any effort to strengthen
this unity or working relationships with all the various
factions of the MNLF."
Musa said political framework being followed by the MILF is far
different from that of the MNLF.
He said MNLF's framework is for integration and power sharing
while the MILF is constitutive in approach but more inclined to
importantly promote the restoration of the sovereign rights of
the Bangsamoro people.
(May 23,
2006 issue)
