By Al Jacinto, Correspondent

ZAMBOANGA CITY: United States officials have met with top Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders at a tightly guarded rebel base in the southern Philippines. The MILF is the country’s largest Muslim rebel group that is fighting for decades for self-determination in the island of Min-danao, where security forces backed by US military intelligence are fighting terrorism and insurgents.

On Friday, Leslie Bassett, US deputy ambassador to Manila, led senior American officials in a two-hour meeting with Murad Ebrahim, the secluded leader of the MILF, in Maguindanao’s Sultan Kudarat town. Basset assured Ebrahim of US support to the peace process in Mindanao.

The MILF is currently negotiating peace with Manila in an effort to end the bloody fighting in the restive, but mineral-rich region of Mindanao.

US Embassy spokesman Rebecca Thompson told Agence France-Presse, “Ms. Bassett met with various leaders and officials in Cotabato as part of a routine familiarization visit.”

The meeting took place at Darapanan, the rebel group’s main training camp on Mindanao island, an MILF statement said.

Darapanan is located in the Cotabato region of Mindanao, but the Thompson would not specifically say if these meetings included MILF representatives.

But Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, commander of Philippine military forces in Mindanao, said, “We were not informed about the meeting.”

He declined to comment further, and there was no immediate response from Philippine government officials.

US to mediate talks

The MILF said, “The meeting was warm and forthright, and it lasted for about two hours.”

The rebels’ statement also quoted Bassett as saying that the US was willing to provide more assistance and play important roles in the peace talks.

“She acknowledged with appreciation the commitment of the MILF in pushing for the peaceful resolution of the conflict even the United States government greatly respect and support people’s struggle and aspiration to achieve peace in the region,” the MILF said.

It quoted Bassett as saying: “Helping attain and sustain peace, security and development in Mindanao is a priority concern of our government.”

According to the MILF statement, Jaafar told the US delegation: “We believe that the US can greatly help toward the peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

Washington is a key aid donor to impoverished Muslim areas of Mindanao, and US Special Forces based on the island provide training and intelligence to Philippine government troops fighting Islamist militants.

The MILF statement said its chief Murad stressed the movement’s commitment to reaching a peace deal with the government of President Gloria Arroyo “through a negotiated political settlement.”

The Arroyo government and the 12,000-member MILF have been taking tentative steps toward resuming formal negotiations in recent months.

Peace talks were halted last year after the MILF attacked Christian communities across the southern Philippines, killing more than 300 people and displacing around 750,000.

The fighting came after the Supreme Court threw out a government proposal to give the rebels control over their so-called ancestral domain, which covers more than 700 towns and villages.
The MILF and the Philippine government signed a new ceasefire in July.

MILF commitment

Ebrahim reiterated the commitment and determination of the MILF to resolve the Muslim insurgency problem in Mindanao through a negotiated political settlement.

“We convey the utmost gratitude and felicitation of the MILF and the Bangsamoro people to the United States of America and His Excellency President Barack Obama for the unfaltering commitment to support to the peace process and peaceful conflict resolution between the government and MILF,” Ebrahim said.

He also praised US humanitarian and development projects in Muslim communities in Mindanao. “Peace-making and peace-building must go hand in hand in resolving the Bangsamoro problem and the conflict in Mindanao. The US government is providing indispensable contribution to these efforts,” he added.

He said that since the US occupation of the Philippines, the Muslims have sought a separate homeland from Washington. “Our Bangsamoro forefathers officially asked the United Sates as early as 1921 and followed up in 1924 and in 1935 to separate Bangsamoro homeland from the Filipinos of Luzon and Visayas once independence will be granted to the latter. The Moros wanted to remain under US rule rather than being annexed to the Philippine Republic,” he said.

Ghazali Jaafar, the MILF deputy chieftain, also appealed to Washington to help in the resolution of the Mindanao problem by addressing the root cause, which is political, emanating from the grant of the US of independence to the Philippines, which he claimed, had immorally and illegally incorporated the Bangsamoro homeland.

Other senior MILF leaders also in the meeting were Mohagher Iqbal, the group’s chief peace negotiator; Muhammad Ameen, Secretary of the MILF Central Committee; Gordon Sayfullah, Senior Commander of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Force; lawyer Datu Michael Mastura, a member of the peace panel; Jun Mantawil, head of Peace Panel Secretariat, and Toks Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF Ceasefire Committee.

Bassett was accompanied by Michael Pignagtello, US Embassy political officer; Elzaida Washington, country director of the United Sates Agency for International Development; and Anthony Senci, embassy defense officer.

Bassett arrived in the Philippines on June 26 as deputy chief of mission for the US Embassy in Manila. She served previously as the deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Mexico City and in Gaborone, Botswana. She was also posted in Colombia, Israel, South Africa, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

At the US State Department in Washington, D.C., Bassett worked for the undersecretary for political affairs and at the National Security Council. She is a graduate of the National War College, holds a Master’s degree from the John Hopkins University. She received her undergraduate degree in international relations from the University of California at Davis.
With report from AFP