Chances of new war in Mindanao growing
Chances of new war in Mindanao growing
MANILA (AFP): Moslem leader Nur Misuari said yesterday the chances of a new war breaking out in the Philippines' southern Mindanao island have sharply increased after the latest round of peace talks ended in deadlock.
The chairman of the rebel Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) also warned in a radio interview of a possible consolidation of Islamic forces in Mindanao to demand a separate Moslem state if the negotiations fail.
"I think the chances of peace and the chances of war are equal," Misuari said on Manila radio station DZRH from his hotel in the southern port city of Zamboanga.
"On a scale, I see that our chances are now 50-50. Before, I gave the chances of peace 80 to 90 percent or even more," said Misuari, who arrived in the southern Jolo island last week on a private plane lent by the Indonesian government.
Two days of mixed committee talks, supervised by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, ended in the city of Zamboanga on Saturday with both sides still poles apart on how a Moslem autonomous region will be carved out. The negotiations are to resume in May.
The rebel leader blamed Manila for its "dogmatic" position on the most crucial issue -- the granting of Moslem-self rule to 13 provinces and nine cities in the south to end over 20 years of sectarian strife which claimed more than 50,000 lives.
The MNLF mounted a failed war for Moslem independence in Mindanao in the early 1970s. The rebellion ended with a formal truce signed in 1976 in Tripoli, Libya in which the MNLF settled for autonomy in 13 provinces and nine cities in the south.
But the pact has never been implemented and armed clashes continued, until 1993 when the MNLF signed a ceasefire with President Fidel Ramos' government.
During the Zamboanga talks, Manila's negotiators insisted on following a constitutional provision calling for a plebiscite in the said areas -- most of which have Christian majorities -- to determine which of them want to join a Moslem-ruled region.
Misuari has rejected this, saying that the Tripoli Agreement -- which grants self-rule to the 13 provinces and nine cities without a referendum -- should have primacy over the constitution.
"Our position is that we should not be that legalistic because we cannot put into the legal framework the Tripoli Agreement," Misuari said, arguing that being an international treaty, "it cannot be subsumed (under) the domestic law."
"If we agree on that point, I think we will go all the way in having peace in Mindanao and the entire Philippines," he said. Negotiators from both sides have already resolved many issues such as the educational, judicial and financial systems to operate under the proposed new Moslem region since talks began in 1993.
But the issue at hand is seen as the most crucial and vital to the talks' success or failure.
Misuari also said it was possible that the MNLF's more radical offshoots -- the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf extremist group -- could join forces and resume their separatist war if the talks collapse completely, but declined to say if the MNLF would join them.
He said he saw evidence that MILF troops were building up their troops and arsenal and that he also heard that the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf are sharing resources and training facilities.
Some MILF leaders told him shortly after arriving in Zamboanga last week that "if there is no hope for peace, it is better if we continue the revolution for total independence of Mindanao."