Mindanao restless despite peace<\/p>\n
By Ruben Alabastro<\/p>\n
MANILA (Reuter): One year after a peace pact ended a long-
\nrunning Moslem separatist war in the southern Philippines and
\nraised expectations of a \"peace dividend\" for the region,
\ndisillusion is setting in.<\/p>\n
Moslem rebel chief Nur Misuari, the man who signed the pact to
\nbring autonomy to parts of the large island of Mindanao, has come
\nunder criticism for delays in getting development projects under
\nway and lingering lawlessness.<\/p>\n
Even Misuari sounds disillusioned.<\/p>\n
\"I cannot brag about anything... I have not built even one
\nkilometer of road,\" he said last week during one of his frequent
\ntrips to Manila to seek funds for his program to rebuild the war-
\nbattered region.<\/p>\n
Today, the former guerrilla-turned-politician will join
\nPresident Fidel Ramos in ceremonies in Misuari's hometown on the
\nisland of Jolo off Mindanao to mark the first anniversary of the
\nsigning of the peace deal.<\/p>\n
The pact ended a 24-year rebellion by the Moro National
\nLiberation Front that claimed 120,000 lives. It also installed
\nMisuari as a regional governor and set up a council led by former
\nrebels to monitor development in 14 Christian and Moslem
\nprovinces in Mindanao.<\/p>\n
The council is to serve as the forerunner to an autonomous
\ngovernment Manila has agreed to set up in 1999 in the region to
\ndefuse Moslem demands for a separate Islamic state.<\/p>\n
Despite Manila's promise to release US$1.2 billion in funds to
\nfinance development, Misuari said all he had received so far was
\nmoney to pay for the operations and salaries of employees of the
\ncouncil and other regional structures.<\/p>\n
Planned projects include roads, airports, power plants, an oil
\nrefinery, a cement factory and livelihood projects.<\/p>\n
Potential donor countries have also pledged more than $400
\nmillion in aid.<\/p>\n
Misuari said he was worried not only about the slow pace of
\ndevelopment, but also the continuing violence in a region where
\ntwo breakaway rebel groups -- the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
\n(MILF) and the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf group -- continue to
\nfight for independence.<\/p>\n
About 150 people died in fighting last month between
\ngovernment soldiers and the MILF before a ceasefire agreement was
\nreached. Technical disputes have stalled talks on a separate
\npeace deal between Manila and the MILF.<\/p>\n
Kidnap-for-ransom gangs that strike with virtual impunity in
\nsome parts of Mindanao have compounded Misuari's problems and
\nadded to criticism of him.<\/p>\n
\"I think people are rushing to judge him,\" Libyan Ambassador
\nRajab Abdulaziz Azzarouq, a member of an Islamic panel that
\nbrokered the peace pact, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\"Misuari has a tremendous task... We have to give him some
\ntime. The man has just started...and the Moslems have to learn
\nhow to govern after many years of fighting,\" Azzarouq said.<\/p>\n
He said Misuari, despite heavy odds, was committed to
\ndeveloping Mindanao, where many Moslems live in poverty despite
\nthe region's vast agricultural lands and mineral resources,
\nincluding gold and copper.<\/p>\n
\"Before he was lecturing us about jihad (holy war). Now, no
\nmore jihad. I told him the real jihad is to make people happy, to
\nmake everyone eat, to make everyone know peace.\"<\/p>\n
Officials said another big problem Misuari had to hurdle was
\nthe centuries-old distrust between Christians and Moslems.<\/p>\n
Regarded by the five million Moslems of this largely Catholic
\ncountry as their ancestral homeland, Mindanao is now dominated by
\nChristians who began migrating to the region in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
Last week when Misuari rode on a \"peace caravan\" across
\nMindanao to campaign for support for the autonomy plan,
\nbusinessmen in predominantly Christian Iligan city snubbed a
\nmeeting with him.<\/p>\n
\"He has shown no accomplishment whatsoever... There is
\nabsolutely no prospect that Christians will join Moslems,\" said
\nIligan businessman and landowner Cesar Padilla.<\/p>\n
Disenchantment has begun to creep in even among Moslems.
\n\"Peace must have a material content for ordinary people, but
\nMisuari has made a historic capitulation for nothing,\" said
\nMoslem professor Asiri Abubakar, who teaches Asian studies at the
\nstate-run University of the Philippines.<\/p>\n
Abubakar said that instead of thinking up grandiose plans like
\nbuilding airports that could take in jumbo jets, Misuari should
\nthink of providing poor Moslem areas with potable water.<\/p>\n
Unless development comes soon, ordinary Moslems might have no
\nother option but violence, he said.<\/p>\n
\"That is possible,\" he told Reuters. \"Moslems hate war, but we
\nhave always been in war and were raised in war. When have we ever
\nknown peace, or hope? We signed for peace but we got nothing.\"<\/p>\n
\"War is a worst case scenario, but if we don't do anything, we
\nwill be pushing Moslems to the wall.\"<\/p>",
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