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By Al Jacinto Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Thousands of Moro
Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) rebels are expected to gather in Mindanao to discuss the slow
progress
of the peace talks with Manila.
The MILF previously appealed to
rebels and supporters for patience as the talks stalled over demands
for a separate Muslim homeland in the strife-torn, but mineral-rich
region of Mindanao. “We will consult with our members and discuss
many things, especially the stalled peace talks,” Mohagher Iqbal,
chief MILF peace negotiator, said.
In 2004, the MILF also held a
plenum in Sultan Kudarat province, drawing close to about three
million Muslims demanding independence in Mindanao.
The MILF, the country’s largest
Muslim rebel group, accused Manila of reneging on its commitment
after peace talks held in Malaysia failed in September. Malaysia was
then brokering the negotiations between the group and the
administration.
Iqbal described the gathering,
which will begin over the weekend, as a “rare opportunity to let
the Muslims know the progress in the seven-year old peace talks.”
Last month, US Ambassador Kristie
Kenney met with the secluded MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim and
discussed the peace process in Mindanao. The US had in the past
offered as much as $30 million to fund development projects in
Muslim areas in Mindanao should the MILF sign a peace deal with
Manila that will put an end to more than four decades of hostilities
in the southern regions.
Iqbal said the Philippine peace
panel last year agreed on the scope of the Muslim ancestral domain,
but later reneged on the accord that will constitute a separate
homeland for over 4 million Muslims and indigenous tribes in
Mindanao. “This ugly turn of events in the peace process is taxing
the patience of the MILF and the Bangsamoro people, who may be
compelled to resort to other means, pacific or otherwise, of
resolving the Mindanao conflict when they are pushed to the wall and
become hopeless in the present peace process,” Iqbal said.
The MILF said government
negotiators headed by Rodolfo Garcia completely disregarded the
agreement on the ancestral domain and insisted again that the
granting of homeland to Muslims in Mindanao would solely be through
a constitutional process which the rebel group previously opposed.
But the Philippine Constitution prohibits the dismembering of the
country.
“This stance of the GRP peace
panel has virtually jeopardized the integrity of the peace process
and to continue with the talks would virtually turn it into a
circus,” Iqbal said.
The ancestral domain covers the
whole of the Muslim autonomous region and other areas in Zamboanga
del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, North Cotabato,
Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces, where there are large
communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes, including Palawan and
the Sulu Archipelago.
President Gloria Arroyo opened up
peace talks with the MILF in 2001. The prospect of resuming the
stalled peace talks remains unknown, and this is further aggravated
by anti-Arroyo protests and street rallies on corruption issues and
scandals in government.
Peace talks had been stalled
after both sides failed to agree on the scope of the ancestral
domain, which is the single most important issue in the peace
negotiations before the rebel group can reach a political
settlement.
Mohammad Ameen, a senior rebel
leader, previously said the MILF would only sign a peace deal with
the Arroyo government if it establishes genuine governance for
Muslims either in the form of ‘state’ or ‘sub-state.’
The MILF earlier warned that
hostilities may erupt in Mindanao if the peace talks fail, or if
Malaysia pulls out its truce observers from the International
Monitoring Team (IMT) in Mindanao, whose 16 million population
included four million Muslims. The team is composed of 41 officers
from the Malaysian Defense Forces, the Royal Malaysia Police, and
the Prime Minister’s department and is also supported by 10
military officers from Brunei Darussalam, and five from Libya. Japan
also has a member in the IMT.
But analysts fear that Arroyo or
her allies in the House of Representatives might use the peace talks
with the MILF as an excuse to amend the constitution and pursue the
planned shift from presidential to parliamentary, or the federal
system, which will allow the MILF to have a separate state and
eventually prolong Arroyo into power beyond 2010.
Under the presidential form of
government, Arroyo, who deposed President Joseph Estrada in a people
power revolution in 2001, is allowed only one six-year term. In the
charter change proposal suggested by her political allies who
dominate Congress, she can be elected as prime minister should
Congress dissolve the Senate and change the system of government to
parliamentary.
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