ARMM chief offers peace to Moro renegades

ARMM chief offers peace to Moro renegades

Agencies, Manila

A former rural doctor elected governor of an unruly Muslim region in the southern Philippines offered an olive branch on Wednesday to Moro rebels fighting Manila and said he was ready to meet their chief detained in Malaysia.

Parouk Hussin, newly installed governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), also opposed any U.S. military intervention in Manila's war with the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group linked to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden.

"We will be conciliatory ... I'll try to find a way to see him if there is a way," Hussin told Reuters, referring to his renegade predecessor, Nur Misuari, who is held in Malaysia for alleged illegal entry.

"We will impress upon him the wisdom of respecting the laws ... and working together in the interest of everybody, the Muslims, our country and the international Islamic community."

The government filed rebellion charges against Misuari, a leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), after hundreds of his fighters attacked military and police posts on southern Jolo island in a failed uprising last month which killed about 160 people.

Misuari fled when the rebellion broke out, but was captured in Sabah in neighboring Malaysia where he is currently held. Hundreds of his followers remain holed up on the outskirts of the largely Christian city of Zamboanga facing possible military attack.

Malaysia has said it is ready to deport Misuari to the Philippines, but President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has said she prefers he remain in Malaysian custody for now.

Besides Misuari's group, Arroyo is also battling Abu Sayyaf guerrillas holding a U.S. missionary couple and a Filipina nurse for over six months on Basilan island, near Jolo.

Like Misuari's MNLF faction and the rival separatist group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Abu Sayyaf claims to fight for a separate state but has sown terror in Christian communities by resorting to kidnap for ransom.

The United States has linked the Abu Sayyaf to bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. landmarks.

Arroyo said on Wednesday she will ask the United States to include Misuari in a U.S. list of terrorists worldwide. She said Misuari, who signed a peace accord with the Philippines in 1996, has links to the extremist Abu Sayyaf group holding an American couple and a Filipino nurse hostage.

"We will be officially notifying the United States that we have information that Misuari has links," Arroyo said. "And remember what President (George W.) Bush said, 'If you harbor the terrorists, if you deal with them, if you work with them, you're also a terrorist.' So by that token, he is a terrorist."

Hussin, reacting to President Bush's statement in Washington on Tuesday that U.S. troops might be used to carry out strikes outside Afghanistan as part of the expanding U.S. war against terrorism, said: "Our military, our law enforcement agencies are capable to handle the Abu Sayyaf,"

"It is unnecessary and it violates the constitution. I don't think the government will allow that," Hussin said when asked if he would agree to U.S. military strikes against the Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim extremist groups in this largely Roman Catholic country.

As governor of ARMM, Hussin said his top priority was to end the violence in the southern region, where the bulk of the country's five million Muslim minority live, and clear the way for the upliftment of impoverished Muslim communities.

"There are no basic services, there is no power, there is no water supply, no infrastructure, no roads, no nothing," he said.

"The problem is there are many armed groups, bandits, and of course the Abu Sayyaf. My concern is how to bring development to the area and make the people feel that there is something to look forward to."

The ARMM region, which enjoys limited autonomy, comprises five predominantly Muslim provinces and Marawi city.