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.
He said both MILF and MNLF agreed to create two coordinating bodies, each for the MNLF under Nur Misuari and MNLF under Hatimil Hassan.
These coordinating bodies, he said, are "working quite well in coordinating our efforts in pursuit of common agenda."
There used to be four MNLF factions: The Misauri Group; MNLF-Committee of 15, the Isnaji Alvarez Group; and MNLF-Islamic Command Council.
"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.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (May 23, 2006 issue)
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