Islamic mission to war-torn southern Philippines accepted
Islamic mission to war-torn southern Philippines accepted
MANILA (Agencies): The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) was welcome to send a fact-finding mission to the war-torn southern Philippines, Manila said on Friday, provided it did not interfere in the nation's sovereignty.
"So long as it is a fact-finding mission and not an interference on our sovereignty and integrity of our territory that's okay because basically, we are not hiding anything here," said President Joseph Estrada's spokesman Ricardo Puno.
Estrada's executive secretary Ronaldo Zamora said: "We are willing to accept them, we are not afraid of the truth."
Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon said the mission was part of a process for the monitoring of a landmark peace pact signed in 1996 between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) after decades of war.
"There is a sincere effort on the part of the government of the Philippines to implement the agreement," he told reporters. "Of course, no implementation is perfect. Otherwise, we would all be in heaven."
The 1996 pact led to the creation of the so-called Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) of which MNLF chief Nur Misuari is governor.
The 56-member OIC decided at a meeting of its foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur to send the mission after hearing conflicting versions of the situation in Mindanao from Misuari and the Philippine government.
Manila said it was honoring development and autonomy pledges made under the peace pact but MNLF officials accused the government of lying about the sum it has provided to rebuild Muslim provinces, and of dragging its feet on providing full autonomy.
The OIC has drafted a resolution to help Muslim Mindanao and called on the Islamic Development Bank and other agencies to assist its development.
The main Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), ignored a deadline Friday to accept a peace agreement by the government, raising the prospect of a protracted war in the southern Philippines.
Thousands of families have been displaced and hundreds of government soldiers and rebels have died as fighting escalated over the past two months.
Meanwhile, Malaysia on Friday rejected a demand that it bypass Manila and negotiate directly with Islamic rebels holding 20 mostly foreign hostages in the southern Philippines.
"You can't simply negotiate outside of the ambit of the Philippine government because it is in the Philippines' territory," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters. "So at the end of the day, it is the Philippines that has to be involved."
He was commenting on the demand by a leader of Abu Sayyaf separatist militants that the six governments of the foreign captives hold talks with the rebels to resolve the 69-day hostage ordeal.
Abu Sayyaf rebels have been holding eight Malaysians, three Germans, two French, two South Africans, two Finns, two Filipinos and one Lebanese since seizing them at Sipadan diving resort -- an island off Kalimantan which is being disputed by Malaysia and Indonesia -- on April 23.
A team of Philippine negotiators had its first and only formal meeting with the rebels on May 27. Two weeks later it suspended talks after the rebels presented new demands but said informal contacts through emissaries were continuing.
Abu Sayyaf chief Galib Andang, speaking to Filipino reporters on Thursday, said the physical condition of the captives was "no longer good", and stressed the need to end the saga.
But Syed Hamid said it would not be reasonable for so many governments to get involved in talks. "I think it will be problematical. Let us look at practical solutions," he said.
Syed Hamid said Malaysia was now "cautious" as the Philippines had accused it of meddling when Malaysian diplomats met unilaterally with Abu Sayyaf leaders in May.