MILF involves Nur loyalists in peace process

COTABATO CITY — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has joined ranks with renegade forces of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) identified with jailed former MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari.

Ghadzali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs, was quoted by the front’s official website, luwaran.com, as saying that so-called "loyalists" of Misuari, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) from 1996 to 2001, will also be involved in their ongoing peace talks with the Arroyo administration.

Jaafar, however, clarified that their alliance with Misuari’s followers was not for any military purpose but for the two groups to help one another in furthering the peace process in Southern Mindanao.

The MNLF signed a peace pact with the government on Sept. 2, 1996, but some of its members loyal to Misuari have banded together after Misuari was indicted and jailed on rebellion charges.

Misuari is locked up in a special detention facility in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Last week, Misuari told Catholic radio station dxMS in Cotabato City that majority of MNLF forces in Mindanao still recognize him as their chairman.

This, despite the takeover in April 2001 of the MNLF leadership by 15 of his former lieutenants, among them Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema and ARMM Assemblyman Hatimil Hassan, who now form the front’s central leadership.

Jaafar said the MILF and the Misuari loyalists’ group are now jointly holding consultations in war-torn communities to get the real perceptions and sentiments of ordinary folk on the ongoing peace talks.

Jaafar said both sides have also been holding dialogues on how to improve the diplomatic ties of local Muslim communities with the Organization of Islamic Conference, which is helping broker the peace negotiations.