RP's MILF doubts peace agreement
RP's MILF doubts peace agreement
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): A leader of the Muslim separatist rebel group that signed a cease-fire agreement with the Philippine government last week says that the deal could face opposition from vested interests in the military and Philippine congress.
Murad Eibrahim, chief of staff of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, was quoted by the Malaysian news agency Bernama as saying that peace would affect promotions in the armed forces and politicians who built up their careers with the aid of the long civil war.
The rebel group signed a Malaysian-brokered cease-fire agreement with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government Tuesday, a major step toward ending decades of fighting in the southern Philippines.
"If she is sincere in the peace process and negotiations, she should prevail upon these people," Murad was quoted as saying.
Bernama reported that the interview was conducted in recent days.
The agreement lays down details of a cease-fire. Further talks will cover economic development in Muslim regions wrecked during the years of fighting for independence from the largely Roman Catholic country.
Murad said that the people in the southern Philippines must immediately witness the situation on the ground return to normal and feel secure as a result of the agreement for the cease-fire to succeed.
"In the past, there are many agreements," Murad was quoted as saying. "The problem is, they remain on paper. There is no implementation, so there is no change in the situation of the people."
The larger Moro National Liberation Front made peace with Manila in 1996. The agreement with the Islamic Front leaves the Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang as the last armed Muslim separatists still fighting.
Abu Sayyaf has raided Malaysia and the Philippines for hostages, including foreign tourists. The group currently holds dozens of captives, among them at least two Americans.
Arroyo has refused to negotiate ransom with the group, but refused at a news conference Thursday to close the door to peace talks.
In Zamboanga, The southern of Mindanao island, a massive Christian "no" vote was shaping up on Sunday as they prepared to hold a plebiscite on expanding a Muslim autonomy zone in the country's rebellion-racked south.
In polls to be held on Tuesday, millions of Christians and Muslims on the southern island of Mindanao and adjacent isles will be asked if they favor joining a five-year-old autonomy area currently ruled by a former Muslim separatist leader.
Manila set up the autonomy zone in 1996 to try to defuse demands by Muslim separatists for an Islamic state in the south of the 85 percent Roman Catholic country.
"I think there will be a massive vote against joining the ARMM," North Cotabato provincial governor Emmanuel Pinol told Reuters, referring to the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.
North Cotabato is among 11 provinces and 14 cities which will hold the plebiscite. Ten of those provinces and almost all of the cities are dominated by Christians.