The influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has intervened to patch up the kinks hindering efforts to unify the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for Bangsamoro empowerment. During the 39th Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa on November 15-17, the OIC urged the MNLF to waste no time in formalizing a coordinative mechanism with the MILF “to achieve peace and development for the people of Bangsamoro.” ....
.... Under the auspices of the OIC, the
Bangsamoro Coordination Forum (BCF) was
proposed to be created to serve as a regular platform for both groups to
dialogue on issues and unite efforts to advance the Moro struggle for
self-governance. This unity effort was formally started in
May 2010 in the sidelines of the 37th OIC-CFM meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu then brought MNLF founding chairman
Nur Misuari and MILF chief Murad Ebrahim to meet and agree to coordinate
efforts. Ihsanoglu had stressed that “coordination
between the two fronts has become of utmost necessity” because their respective
peace processes with the Philippine government “revolve around the same problem
and the same territory.” The MILF broke away from the MNLF in 1978.
In October this year, after almost 15 years of negotiations, it signed an
initial pact with the government, which it said is an improvement of the
concessions gained by the MNLF through the 1996 Final Peace Agreement. The creation of the BCF cropped up during
the December 2011 meeting between the two groups in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In a resolution, the OIC-CFM “commends
(the) MILF’s acceptance of the proposal and urges (the) MNLF to accept the
proposal as soon as possible to enable institutional and orderly coordination
between them.”
Murad and Misuari headed their respective
delegations to the Djibouti meeting. Both talked to each other in a meeting
hosted by Ihsanoglu and witnessed by Djibouti Foreign Affairs Minister Mahmoud
Ali Yussof. “(We) welcome the meeting between the MNLF
and the MILF on the sidelines of this session…,” read the Djibouti Declaration,
which was issued by the diplomats of 57 OIC member-states at the conclusion of
the CFM meeting, a copy of which was posted on the OIC website. “(We) call upon the two fronts to unify
efforts and coordinate positions for the benefit of the
Bangsmoro people,” it said.
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