Monday, January 20, 2014

MNLF hands off on peace deal between GPH, MILF

From the Philippine Star (Jan 20): MNLF hands off on peace deal between GPH, MILF



The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rejected proposals to converge with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in its crafting of a final peace accord with government.

The MNLF, which signed a final truce with government on Sept. 2, 1996, said it is merely adhering to all resolutions by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) purporting that any of its dealings with Malacañang must be within the scope of the existing tripartite body that has been trying to resolve all misunderstandings on the now 18-year peace agreement.

The largest and most politically active MNLF faction, chaired by former Cotabato City Vice-Mayor Muslimin Sema, said in an emailed statement that accepting the GPH and MILF’s proposal can be construed as an insult to the OIC.

The OIC, a bloc of more than 50 Muslim states, including wealthy petroleum exporting nations in the Middle East and North Africa, helped broker the government-MNLF final peace agreement.

The agreement is now subject of a tripartite review- involving the OIC, the MNLF and representatives from the national government and ARMM- as a three-way effort to resolve misunderstandings on the implementation of some of its sensitive provisions.

The tripartite review has already reached 42 consensus points on education, Moro political representation, natural resources, Sharia and regional security, which are all almost identical with what had been stated in all of the three annexes the GPH and MILF panels had added to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB).
The GPH and MILF panels are yet to complete the fourth and last annex on normalization to the FAB in the next round of talks in Malaysia.

The FAB is to become the basis for the setting up of an MILF-led Bangsamoro entity, which the government and the MILF intend to put up before the three-year term of incumbent ARMM officials end on June 30, 2016.

The MNLF faction led by Nur Misuari is just as reluctant to converge with the MILF and join in its forging of a final peace agreement with government.

Misuari has, in fact, been very critical of the on-going GPH-MILF talks.

The group of Sema, which has more than 20 revolutionary states in Mindanao and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, said the issue of converging the MILF and the MNLF together is best left to the OIC.

“The MNLF has yet to wait for the manifestation of the OIC as regards to the modalities on how that linkage can be worked out,” the group said.

The Sema group, emphasized, however, that it has no animosity with the MILF. The group said the MNLF and the MILF are not at war with each other.

“The central committee of this MNLF leadership do not want to do any disrespect to the organization of the Muslim peoples of the world – the OIC,” the group stated in its emailed statement.

http://www.philstar.com/nation/2014/01/20/1281006/mnlf-hands-peace-deal-between-gph-milf

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