Bangsamoro News Agency
Mindanao, South Philippines
PRESS RELEASE
6 March 2002
MNLF to send delegates to OIC meetings
THE mainstream Moro
National Liberation Front under the leadership of Chairman Nur
Misuari will send official delegation both to the Senior
Officials’ Meeting of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) in May this year and to the forthcoming 29th
Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) in Sudan in June,
also this year.
Traditionally, the Senior Officials’ meeting is held a
month ahead of the regular ICFM session to prepare the agenda.
The MNLF has been invited every year in both meetings since it
became an observer in 1974.
The decision was reached during the enlarged Central
Committee leadership meeting held in Davao City, Mindanao, South
Philippines on March 1, 2002.
The MNLF delegation will be composed of Central Committee
members and advisers who will represent the Bangsamoro people in
the said meetings while Chairman Misuari is in detention.
The
MNLF under Chairman Nur Misuari enjoys a permanent observer
status in the OIC and is recognized as the sole and legitimate
representative of the Bangsamoro people to the international
pan-Islamic body.
Vice Chairman Jimmy Labawan, who has been given authority
to preside all regular and special meetings of the Central
Committee for political expediency and organizational
effectiveness pending release from illegal detention of Chairman
Misuari, will lead the MNLF delegation.
A veteran
freedom fighter, Labawan, former MNLF director-general for Davao
affairs, has been appointed vice chairman following a recent
major reshuffle in the MNLF hierarchy after some former members
of the Central Committee had decided to leave the organization
and formed a new group, the so-called Executive Council of 15,
whose members became close associates of the Macapagal-Arroyo
government.
In charged of the day to day affairs of the MNLF, Vice
Chairman Labawan is also authorized to receive and promptly
reply all official communications from the OIC member-countries,
including the members of the Ministerial Committee of the Eight,
from the OIC secretary-general, and from all other similar
bodies and institutions that need the attention of Chairman
Misuari relative to MNLF interest. # # #
