MNLF strips Hussin of his position

COTABATO CITY — The central committee of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has stripped former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Parouk Hussin of his position as the front’s foreign affairs chief.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, MNLF secretary-general, said copies of the resolution suspending Hussin, jointly drafted by more than 30 ranking members of the front, have been faxed to embassies in Manila of Muslim countries belonging to the Organization of Islamic Conference.

Sema said Hussin, ARMM governor from November 2001 to September 2005, no longer has the "legal personality" to participate in the January tripartite meeting among leaders of the MNLF and representatives of the government and the OIC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The resolution of the MNLF’s central committee was passed during an emergency meeting in Barangay Kakar here the other day.

The tripartite meeting, initially scheduled last November, is aimed at threshing out the misunderstanding between the government and the MNLF on the implementation of their Sept. 2, 1996 peace agreement.

Sema said they have replaced Hussin with Ustadz Abdulbaki, a Tausog foreign-trained preacher.

Hussin is also a Tausog who hails from Maimbung, a hostile town in Sulu, a component province of the ARMM.

Sema said the grounds for Hussin’s suspension were "very serious." He, however, did not elaborate.

Relatives of Hussin said he is now in Australia.