MILF nixes new government tack in peace process

COTABATO CITY – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) does not want to resume peace talks based on the government’s framework of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.

Muhaquer Iqbal, who chairs the MILF peace panel, said the government could put negotiations back on track by changing its stand.

“The government now wants to deal directly with the communities, not with rebel groups,” he said. “It has even disbanded its own peace panel. The MILF peace panel remains intact.”

Iqbal said the MILF has construed the government’s sudden change of position in pursuing the peace talks as “dribbling with the overture.”

However, the MILF is still keen on pursuing a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the Mindanao problem, he added.

Iqbal said hostilities in parts of Central Mindanao and surrounding areas continue to escalate with the military’s intrusion into supposedly acknowledged MILF enclaves.

“When our forces are attacked, they will assert their right to defend themselves,” he said.

Iqbal said the only thing that binds the MILF and the government is the ceasefire, but it does not oblige the front to turn in any commander who would violate any of its provisions.

“The ceasefire does not say either that any soldier who would violate it would have to be turned over to the MILF,” he said.

Iqbal, who also chairs the MILF committee on information, told Catholic radio station dxMS here that the General Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities does not compel either side to yield anyone who may have violated any of its provisions.

Iqbal said Ameril Ombra Kato and Abdurahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo remain as MILF members and are not “renegades” as the military have tagged them.

Iqbal said the military has no reason to prosecute Kato since he and his men were only defending Moro communities from attacks by government troops.

Bravo’s kin helping military

Relatives and former comrades of Macapaar are reportedly giving authorities information that may help in his capture.

Col. Benito de Leon, Army 104th Infantry Brigade commander, told The STAR local government officials in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur have also been cooperating in efforts to capture Macapaar.

“We are happy to have received a significant number of visitors, even at our headquarters, many of whom are Bravo’s former close associates, supporters and relatives, volunteering essential information to hasten his capture,” he said.

“The local executives have been blaming Bravo (Macapaar) and his group for creating havoc, displacing and affecting even his fellow Muslims,” he added.

De Leon said Macapaar’s group, whose camps at the Bilal complex in Lanao del Norte have been overrun, has refused to engage government troops.

In Marawi City, non-government organizations held a huge rally at the gates of Kampo Ranao, headquarters of the Army’s 103rd Infantry Brigade, to call on the government to bring the Moro problem to the United Nations and for the military to stop its operations.

Col. Nicanor Dolojan, Army 403rd Infantry Brigade commanding officer, said the military’s mission is to enforce the law. “The civil societies must think twice before they urge us to stop or if they have other alternatives how to get Bravo,” he said.

Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz, however, said the military must continue its punitive actions against Macapaar and his men. “It is not true that these punitive actions are targeting Muslim communities,” he said.

8 rebels, 3 soldiers killed

Eight MILF rebels and three soldiers were killed in the latest fighting in Datu Piang, Maguindanao on Wednesday.

Col. Marlou Salazar, a local military commander, said the MILF rebels fired on an Army patrol in Datu Piang town and fled using civilians as cover, he added.

The bodies of the eight rebels were recovered from the scene, he said.

Twelve soldiers were wounded in the ambush, and the rebels fled after military reinforcements backed by armored vehicles arrived at the scene, Salazar said.

Tension has been high for a month now in parts of Maguindanao, where soldiers and MILF forces have been engaging in one encounter after another.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) is providing emergency aid for thousands of people displaced by the fighting.

In a statement, WHO said its P15-million package will provide medicine and medical supplies and ensure safe water for some 38,000 families in evacuation centers.

“Evacuees are vulnerable to diseases such as diarrhea and respiratory tract infection that may be acquired because of crowding and less than ideal environmental conditions in the temporary shelters,” WHO representative Soe Nyunt-U said. – With Jaime Laude, Lino de la Cruz, Edith Regalado