Reflection of Moslem discontent?

Reflection of Moslem discontent?

The assault which killed 45 people and devastated a town in
the southern Philippines may well remain a bad dream if President
Fidel Ramos fails to overcome Moslem rebels.

Ramos quickly put the blame on the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group
calling the incident the worst in 20 years. Is the group really
the one responsible for the assault? The Moslem rebels in the
country are not united and they have broken up into small
factions. Some of the factions seem to look more like bandit
groups.

The Philippines government and the Moro National Liberation
Front are planning to hold their second peace talk in Indonesia
in June this year.

In our view, Manila has so far rejected all the MNLF demands
without providing any logical alternative. We sometimes think
that Manila is determined to take over the land belonging to
Moslems and the assault was a response to the intrusion of
Christians from central and northern Philippines.

The majority of the town of Ipil with an inhabitants of
150,000 people are Christians and not even one local government
apparatus is Moslem on this demographically Moslem island of
Mindanao.

The intrusion of people from central and northern Philippines
is linked to the economic difficulties the country is facing. And
this population movement is indirectly supported by the
Philippines government.

Hence, in our opinion the assault to Ipil is a reflection of
land appropriation and the advent of Christians to the island.
The Philippines government has to resolve the long festering
issue of the Moslem rebel immediately.

-- Pikiran Rakyat, Bandung