Misuari faces challenge of drawing back refugees

Misuari faces challenge of drawing back refugees

By Martin Abbugao

COTABATO, Philippines (AFP): Luring back about half a million refugees who fled the civil war in the southern Philippines will be a top priority of the Moslem region's new governor, analysts say.

The war on Mindanao island between Manila and governor-elect Nur Misuari's separatist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the early 1970s not only left 120,000 people dead, but also dislocated millions from their homes, with many of them fleeing to neighboring Malaysia.

Misuari, who signed a landmark peace pact with the government last week ending the 24-year rebellion, has set his sights on drawing back the refugees in the hope that they can help rebuild their war-ravaged homeland.

"I will bring the best brains in Mindanao into this house. I want to call upon our brothers and sisters in Mindanao, Moslems or Christians or highlanders, that I need their expertise," he said.

A bulk of these refugees had fled to the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, where many have become Malaysian citizens, got highly-paid jobs and set up profitable businesses.

But many of them have also strained the island's social services and become involved in criminal activities. Their presence there has been a frequent topic of discussion between Manila and Kuala Lumpur.

"The chief minister of Sabah is going to see me this month" to discuss the refugee problem, said Misuari, who on Monday was elected governor of a four-province Autonomous Region of Moslem Mindanao (ARMM) under the peace deal.

Most of those who fled to Sabah come from the island of Basilan and the ARMM provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi in the country's extreme south.

Former ARMM governor Zacaria Candao said Misuari should lure back these refugees but stressed that the economic conditions for their return must first be established.

"I think that this is one problem that Nur Misuari must really address immediately," he told AFP here.

"The first problem of Nur Misuari would be to find a suitable place in which to resettle them, especially in their places of origin, if possible," he added.

But he also cautioned that the new regional leadership should "go slow on the return of the refugees because while it is true that the peace agreement has been concluded" it has yet to be fully implemented and its promises of economic development have yet to be realized.

As regional governor and with his impending appointment as head of a Moslem-led council through which huge infrastructure and development funds for the ARMM and 10 other provinces will be channeled, Misuari may well succeed in turning the underdeveloped south into a boom area.

Brigadier General Raul Urgello, commander of an army division based in this city, said he had visited Sabah in the past where he had got the impression that Filipino refugees would prefer to stay there.

"The refugees who are in Sabah do not like to come home because they are well paid there," he told AFP.

He said he had visited four spots in Sabah where the huge Filipino communities were "well off" and had steady jobs in the face of a Malaysian labor shortage.

Urgello said that not all those who fled to Sabah were Moslems, noting that many of them were Christians.

Analysts project that with the onset of economic development following peace agreement, more refugees would chose to return.

The creation of more jobs at home and continued consultations between Sabah and the ARMM leadership are expected to cut down the number of Filipinos entering the Malaysian state illegally, they added.