|
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Plebiscite to decide Muslim homeland in Mindanao
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Government peace negotiators and Muslim rebels have agreed to hold a plebiscite for a separate homeland in the southern Philippines.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is currently negotiating peace with Manila, said the referendum would be held in areas where there are large Muslim communities.
Peace talks are expected to resume in Malaysia, which is brokering the political settlement of one of the world's longest-running Muslim insurgency problem. The negotiators hope to finalize an agreement on the proposed homeland for more than three million Muslims in Mindanao.
In September, peace negotiators signed several agreements centered on the ancestral domain--its concept, territories and resources--and how the MILF shall govern these places.
Ancestral domain refers to the MILF's demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland. For the rebel group it is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations and one that must be threshed out before a political settlement can be reached.
Both sides have agreed on several crucial issues, including the coverage of a proposed ancestral domain in the five Muslim autonomous provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces that have large Muslim communities and indigenous tribes.
"We will consolidate and review the agreements, and then ratify them. And after that, a peace accord will be signed and a plebiscite for the establishment of a separate Muslim homeland shall be held in the southern Philippines," said Eid Kabalu, the spokesman for the MILF.
The MILF is the country's largest Muslim separatist rebel group, which has been fighting in the past three decades for the establishment of a Muslim state in the troubled region.
"Everything in the peace agreement will be submitted to the people and there is nothing to hide because we really want peace to reign," Kabalu said.
It is unknown if the plebiscite is part of the Constitutional amendments Manila is recommending.
Mayor Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City has denounced the agreement signed by the government and rebel peace negotiators that would give a homeland to the MILF.
He said the government signed a secret deal with the rebels that would allow them to establish an Islamic state across Mindanao under the guise of the so-called Muslim ancestral domain.
"This is a sellout. We won't allow Mindanao to be dismembered, and we must act swiftly before it is too late," Lobregat, an opposition leader, has said in Zamboanga.
A new group in Zamboanga, the Concerned Citizen-Activists for Development (CCA) and composed mostly of allies of Lobregat, said it would oppose any move to include the city to the separate homeland for Muslims.
It said the locals were not consulted about the agreements signed by the MILF and government peace negotiators. Zamboanga City has more than 600,000 population and about 100,000 are Muslims.
Khaled Musa, deputy chair of the MILF's information committee, said the Muslims have the right to determine their own political future.
"The right of the Bangsamoro people to determine their own political future is not subject to veto by any group in Mindanao. This is a God-given right, and is spelled out in the Tripoli Agreement of 2001, signed by the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
"The right to self-determination is also entrenched in the Charter of the United Nations," he said.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo opened peace talks and forged a ceasefire agreement in 2001 with the MILF.
Many Arab countries, including the influential Organization of Islamic Conference and Libya, Saudi Arabia and the United States strongly support the peace talks.
President George W. Bush offered as much as $30 million in financial assistance to help develop Mindanao should the MILF seal a peace agreement with Manila.
The money would be used to help the rebels get back to the mainstream of society.
President Arroyo said 80 percent of the peace talks have been completed and that peace in Mindanao is within reach.
MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim has said that his group is sincere in the talks and is willing to end the war in Mindanao.
"Peace is almost at hand. After decades of unrelenting struggle, our flickering hope for a just and comprehensive political solution to the Bangsamoro problem has been rekindled. Our aspiration to a rightful place in our society has once again assumed its proper shape."
"Our lifelong dream to establish and develop our homeland as a permanent legacy to the next generation of Bangsamoro people, and the generation after that, that they can call their own, will soon--insha' Allah (God willing)--become a reality," Ebrahim said. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(November 24, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Probe office chief suffers stroke, critical