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Mussomeli
said MILF would be blacklisted if failing to ink a peace agreement
with Manila
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Rexcel
Sorza, IOL Correspondent
ILOILO
CITY, Philippines, February 26 (IslamOnline.net) - The U.S. threatened
on Thursday, February 26, it might place the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) on its list of terrorist organizations should it fail to
ink a peace accord with the Philippine government.
U.S.
Charge d'affaires Joseph Mussomeli said they are continually assessing
whether or not blacklist MILF alongside organizations like the
Communist Party of the Philippines and the Abu Sayyaf.
He
pointed out that "if a genuine peace accord is reached ... then
that would suggest strongly that there is very little reason to put
them (MILF) on" the list for foreign terrorist organizations,
which are linked to the Al-Qaeda.
"It
is an ongoing assessment process. It is an issue that may in the next
year or two really reach a conclusion," Mussomeli told a Foreign
Correspondents' Association of the Philippines forum on Thursday.
"Right
now we remain hopeful -- because of ongoing negotiations, because of
their public announcement renouncing terrorism -- that they will avoid
being placed on the list."
The
MILF, which is set to resume the formal peace talks with the Arroyo
government in April, has yet to issue a statement on Mussomeli’s
announcement.
However,
this was not the first time the group has been allegedly linked to
terrorist groups.
On
Saturday, October 11, Lawyer Eid Kabalu, MILF spokesman, repudiated a
news report that the group had received a sum of money from Al-Qaeda.
"It’s
definitely not true.
We have said this before and we are standing by our earlier
statements. We are not connected in any way with the al-Qaeda and all
terrorist groups," he told IslamOnline.net.
In
a letter sent to U.S. President George Bush through the U.S. Embassy
in Manila, late MILF chairman Salamat Hashim dismissed terrorism as
"an anathema
to the teachings of Islam."
Funds
Meanwhile,
Mussomeli asserted that should the MILF seal a peace agreement to end
the decades-long struggle for the return of their homeland, it would
enjoy millions of dollars in financial assistance.
Some
$30 million has been offered by U.S. President George W. Bush during
his state visit to the country last year as assistance to Mindanao.
The
American diplomat said the money would be used "to help the MILF
combatants get back to the mainstream of society.
He,
however, warned that "money is not going to be there forever. It
goes away in the next several months."
