Mohagher Iqbal, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panel chief negotiator, declared Tuesday “the decommissioning of our weapons and putting them beyond use” is an affirmation of the MILF’s to the peace process.
Iqbal made this declaration Tuesday when they turned in 75
weapons during the decommissioning of 145 members of the MILF at the gymnasium
of the old provincial capitol here.
Fifty of the 75 weapons they turned in to the International
Decommissioning Body (IDB) consisted of high-powered rifles and 25 crew-served
weapons -- mortars, rocket launchers and caliber .50 machineguns.
“This is the start of our preparation for peacetime in the
Bangsamoro by taking this serious move of decommissioning. It is a first of the
many steps towards the achievement of peace,” Iqbal declared.
“People sometimes commit the mistakes that firearms are our
main strength. They are wrong. Firearms are not the source of our main
strength,” Iqbal said, citing “our main strength is the love, affection and
faith of the Bangsamoro people.”
He said that frankly speaking, the turnover of the weapons
and decommissioning of members is the most difficult decisions “we have made so
far in more than four decades of harsh struggle.”
He said they have agreed to turn in the weapons and put them
beyond use since they “want to show to the world that the MILF will and will
always comply with obligations set forth in signed agreements.”
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, along with some of his
Cabinet members, congressmen, and local government officials witnessed the
turnover of the weapons and decommissioning of 145 MILF members.
The decommissioning is part of the Annex on Normalization of
the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) the government and the MILF
signed last year.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=0&sid=&nid=0&rid=773098
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