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Philippines Warring Factions Ready for Talks in Kuala Lumpur
KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - It was confirmed Friday that the next round of talks between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Philippines government will be held this month in Kuala Lumpur. The meeting will be held end of July.
Preparations are underway for the talks, and the chief government negotiator said that at the meeting both sides would present specific details concerning a ceasefire already sealed since last June in Tripoli, Libya.
Jesus Dureza, head of the government peace panel, would provide all the necessary details to the 12,500-strong MILF prior to the meeting, while the MILF states it already spelled out its main concerns in Libya.
A recent gun battle between troops and the MILF in the southern province of Sultan Kudarat caused fears among negotiators that it could cause a collapse in talks had it escalated.
The MILF, for its part, also did not pressure the government after the armed forces of the Philippines attacked its bases in Basilan last month.
The MILF has been waging a 23-year armed uprising seeking an independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines. It splintered from the larger Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1978, and was left out of a 1996 peace accord between Manila and the MNLF.
The Muslim movement said it wanted the return of its occupied camps and told IslamOnline that it was confident the regime in Manila would comply with the Tripoli agreement.
The agreement said the Philippines government would return the camps and that it would invest in the repair of the infrastructure within the camps, thanks to aid from Arab and other Muslim countries.
In a related development, Nur Misuari, the governor of the autonomous regions of Mindanao, warned the Philippines government of "another Frankenstein" in the form of the Abu Sayyaf.
Misuari expressed fears that the government's reported move to reunite renegade members of the MNLF with the MILF would result in the creation of another Abu Sayyaf-style movement.
Misuari, referring to intelligence reports, said the Abu Sayyaf was the brainchild of the administration of former Philippines president Joseph Estrada.
"All [monsters] that the state has organized eventually turned their ire on the government after benefiting from [it]," Misuari said.
Muslimin Sema, Cotabato City mayor and member of the 15-member executive council, confirmed the MNLF-MILF merger, and said it was now stronger than the Misuari-led MNLF.
But Misuari denied this, saying many of the MNLF state revolutionary committee chairs had allied with him. He warned confused MNLF members that "those who are misled will be written in the blackest pages of our history because what they do amounts to betrayal of our cause, our organization and our people."
Observers in Mindanao say Misuari is desperately fighting against any merger or sharing of power with the MILF, itself a splinter group from Misuari's MNLF.
Additional reporting by Kazi Mahmood
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