MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim and Mohagher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front has accused Manila of trying to slow down development supports it is receiving from various international organizations and countries supporting the peace process in Mindanao.
Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s chief peace negotiator, has expressed grave concern over how the Aquino government is trying to exert influence in an effort to slow down international support to the rebel group which is currently negotiating peace with Manila.
“We express our grave concern over the reported government's changing policy on our relations with development partners and the GPH instruction to these development partners to slow in their engagements with the MILF,” Iqbal said during Monday opening of the three-day peace negotiations in Kuala Lumpur.
He said there engagements are essential for the success not only of the conclusion of the peace talks, but more importantly of the implementation of the peace accord that both panels may sign.
“Given the short period of the transitions for the MILF and the continuing delay in the completion and signing of a comprehensive peace agreement, it become even more urgent that the MILF receives technical assistance, capacity development, development planning and resource mobilization to insure that when it takes the reign of government it is able to deliver and meet the expectations of the Bangsamoro people. It is our firm conviction that a strong MILF is good for the peace-making in Mindanao, not otherwise,” Iqbal said.
Iqbal said the long delay in the resumption of the peace talks have generated so much negative speculations and restlessness among some MILF members. “It is not good to hear these, but they were all expressed loud and clear. To many, the impression is that there is an impasse of the peace talks,” he said.
The MILF has earlier rejected a government draft on wealth-sharing in the proposed Muslim homeland, saying it was not what the rebel group is expecting.
Iqbal said there was only a sigh of relief after the Malaysian facilitator Tenkgu Dato AB Ghafar Tengku Mohamed arrived in Manila last month to talk to key government officials and MILF leaders to hasten the peace process. He said the two peace panels declared its commitment to solve the Moro problem.
He said MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim also wrote a letter to President Benigno Aquino and reiterated his unwavering commitment to resolve the conflict peacefully. But Murad also informed Aquino of the growing frustration of the people and some members of the MILF as a result of the delay of the talks.
Iqbal said the President replied at Murad’s letter, but the content of the letter was not made public. “The President responded positively to the letter. But I am so sorry I cannot disclose the content of the letter because I don’t have the mandate to do so. Our chairman did not allow that copies be made except one that is intended for the Facilitator for the record of the Malaysian Secretariat,” he said.
He said the peace talks are now in the critical stage and warned that “there are many spoilers who are waiting in ambush.”
“As a negotiator for more than ten years, I have learned a lot of hard lessons. My experience tells me that there is no easy part of any real life negotiation. For this reason, I know that the road ahead of the current peace talks is still full of humps and bumps. But this is no reason to cause the failure of these talks. Sincere and committed partners in peace process will always find creative formula to get through any differences. If they don’t find one, this means one of the parties or both of them change policy from solving the conflict to not solving it,” Iqbal said, “truth is that too much pressure is building against us, especially on government. The civil society organizations way back home has already sounded the clarion call that we wake up and finish the process.”
He said a recent summit on the Bangsamoro peace talks held in Davao City called on the government and MILF to “sign the peace agreement now because time is running out.”
The MILF is fighting for decades for self-determination in Mindanao.
http://mindanaoexaminer.blogspot.com/2013/07/milf-accuses-manila-of-influencing.html
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