OIC to tackle findings on MNLF truce in Azerbaijan meet

COTABATO CITY — The findings of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) team now assessing the implementation of the Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact between the government and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) will be a key topic in the OIC’s ministerial meeting in Azerbaijan on June 19.

After discussions in Azerbaijan, Libyan Ambassador Salem Adam, a key member of the team, said the OIC will hold a tripartite meeting with key leaders of the MNLF and the Philippine government to tackle the strengths and weaknesses of the peace accord.

"What is encouraging here is that all parties want peace. We are optimistic that we can have lasting peace in Mindanao," said Adam, whose country belongs to the OIC’s Ministerial Committee of the Eight composed of eight Islamic states that helped broker the 1996 agreement.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, MNLF secretary-general, assured the OIC delegation, led by Sayed El-Masry, an adviser to OIC secretary-general Ekmeliddin Ishanoglu, that members of the front, despite their complaints about the implementation of the truce, will never turn their backs on it.

"This evaluation now by the OIC of the implementation of the peace agreement by both the government and the MNLF is one big step in our continuing peace-building initiative in Mindanao," Sema said.

El-Masry told Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan during a dialogue Thursday night that the OIC is for the peaceful settlement of the security problems in Mindanao and that as a pan-Islamic body, it is keen on supporting peace overtures in countries where there are Muslims.

Although he is neither a member of the MNLF nor the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Ampatuan said his administration has ongoing socio-economic projects, some funded by foreign donors, in areas where members of both fronts reside.

Ampatuan, however, told El-Masry in the presence of Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza that there is lack of public consultations in the ongoing peace talks with the MILF.

The peace discussions with the MILF, a breakaway faction of the MNLF, started on Jan. 7, 1997, but gained momentum only about three years ago with the involvement of Malaysia, also an OIC member-state, as mediator.

"All local government units in the ARMM and other areas must be consulted first before the signing of any peace pact between the government and the MILF," Ampatuan said.

With such consultations, he said the government and the MILF could prevent misunderstandings that now hound the peace agreement with the MNLF.

Adam said part of their mission in Mindanao is to look into the continuing detention of MNLF founder and former ARMM governor Nur Misuari.

Misuari has been detained since 2002 for leading a failed mutiny in Jolo, Sulu on Nov. 19, 2001, two weeks before the fourth ARMM elections which he feared would boot him out of power.