Misuari spotted in Sulu

From the Manila Bulletin (Jan 11): Misuari spotted in Sulu

Cotabato: Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Chairperson Nur Misuari, who has been in hiding after being implicated in the bloody Zamboanga siege in 2013, reportedly resurfaced in Sulu last Friday to preside over a meeting of MNLF followers and elements of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), eluding government security forces which have been trying to track him down.

“A large group of mostly heavily armed MNLF and Abu Sayyaf rebels turned up for the assembly called for by the 76-year-old Misuari on Friday in Indanan town, Sulu,” said Zamboanga City-based journalist Al Jacinto yesterday.

The Friday assembly was reportedly called by Misuari so that he could discuss with loyal followers and sympathizers his desire to attend an upcoming Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva.

According to Jacinto, it was a “missed opportunity to arrest” the elusive Misuari, who has been charged for deadly assaults staged by the MNLF in Zamboanga in 2001 and 2013.

Hundreds of casualties were reported in the attacks with the 2013 siege leaving 190 people killed, more than 200 others wounded and over 19,000 individuals displaced. A considerable number of the displaced people have remained in evacuation camps since then, raising local and foreign humanitarian bodies’ concerns for their welfare in substandard conditions.

According to reports from UN agencies, several houses were destroyed by fire, and schools, airports and businesses were all shut down as a result of the siege that lasted for 20 days.

Quoting local sources, Jacinto said the Friday assembly “prompted the military to declare a red alert status in Sulu for fear the MNLF and Abu Sayyaf groups might launch fresh attacks against government targets.”

Suspected to have been long hiding in Sulu, Misuari “managed to pass through military checkpoints and gathered the rebel forces for the plenum undetected.”

In Zamboanga City, Police Office Director Sr. Supt. Angelito Casimiro said the MNLF members, who proceeded to the Sulu meeting, came from the neighboring provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur and Sarangani province and took a ferry boat en-route to Sulu to attend the Misuari-hosted meeting.

However, Casimiro noted that the MNLF members were “unarmed and not wearing (their MNLF) uniform, and, thus, cannot be charged nor restrict them to travel (because that would violate their) civil liberties.”

It was learned that the MNLF visitors had requested for a safe conduct pass from the AFP and PNP to allow them pass by and board a ferry for Jolo, Sulu starting Thursday night.

Casimiro said he ordered the Vitali Police Station to deploy sufficient police force, together with military units, at the border in Licomo to strictly account for and ensure that the MNLF members were unarmed and will not cause trouble in the city.

Zamboanga police had also intercepted about 40 MNLF members from Sarangani Province at the village of Talon-Talon where they were profiled and eventually escorted to the pier on their way to Jolo, Sulu.

Task Group Zamboanga has deployed fully-armed troops with armored personnel carriers at the border early Thursday morning to ensure military presence.

The same troops escorted the MNLF members to the wharf until they were able to board a vessel bound for Jolo in Sulu.

Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco on Saturday urged police and military authorities “to apply the full force of the law to members of the MNLF who will attempt to disrupt the peace and tranquility in the city.”

Climaco said she directed authorities in this city to “stay extra vigilant against any and all violations that may be committed by the travelling members of the MNLF who were en-route to Sulu for a supposed assembly.”

“Strictly enforce the law on any erring individual to protect Zamboanga City,” the mayor told the heads of the police and military in this city

The local chief executive also brought to the attention of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles through a letter, the presence in Zamboanga of several persons allegedly on their way to Sulu to attend an assembly of more or less 5,000 members of the MNLF.

“This matter was not coordinated with the City Government of Zamboanga nor with the local police”, the mayor told Deles in her letter as she expressed apprehensions over the peace and tranquility of the city given the devastating MNLF siege in September 2013.

Climaco likewise asked Deles if the assembly of the MNLF members in Sulu was coordinated with the OPAPP, saying: “We seek your immediate guidance as we may be compelled to disperse any assembly of persons that will converge in and threaten peace and order in the city.”

Misuari, now in his mid 70s, signed the MNLF’s Final Peace Agreement (FPA) with the government in September, 1996, a few days before then President Fidel Ramos convinced him to run for governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the 1997 elections, which he won easily with massive state party backing.

Under the FPA, the Philippine government was to provide a mini-Marshal Plan for economic development in ARMM areas, including livelihood and housing assistance to thousands of former rebels to improve their living conditions.

Accusing the government of not fully implementing the intent and spirit of the 1996 FPAI, Misuari and his loyal forces and former MNLF rebels integrated into the Philippine Army attacked a key military base in Jolo town.

Misuari then escaped by boat to Malaysia, where he was eventually arrested and deported to the Philippines. He was subsequently pardoned by President Gloria-Arroyo, reportedly in exchange for MNLF support for her election bid and her allies in the Senate and Congress in 2004.

But the so-called MNLF Council of 15, a body which gained observer status at the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), ousted Misuari as chairman.

MNLF foreign affairs Chief Parouk Hussin, a Council of 15 key official, was elected ARMM governor in 2001 with full backing from the Arroyo administration. Maguindanao-based Muslim in Sema, another Council of 15 co-founder, assumed chairmanship of the MNLF from Misuari.

In 2014, Abul Khayr Alonto, one of MNLF founders who helped install Misuari as founding chieftain, was elected new MNLF chair by surviving members of the front’s “Top 90” original cadres.

Alonto and Sema have manifested official support to the government’s current peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which was founded in by now deceased Ustaz Salamat Hasim after bolting from the MNLF in 1980s. But Misuari remains opposed to the government-MILF peace dealings.

http://www.mb.com.ph/misuari-spotted-in-sulu/