MILF's Murad pushes for resolution of ancestral domain, Moro issues

COTABATO CITY - The head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said more conflicts might erupt if the two major concerns in the talks will not be resolved soon.

MILF chief negotiator Al Haj Ibrahim Murad said the government and the Front agreed to resolve the two major concerns as talks resume after the Muslims’ annual fasting.

Murad said the two major concerns, ancestral domain and the solution to the Moro problem, will be the main agenda of the resumption of talks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after the Ramadan.

“The Front is approaching the negotiating table with much hope to resolve every obstacle along the way,” Murad stressed, citing they expect the same move from the Philippine government.

Murad said if the two issues will not be resolved, a similar incident might happen again, just like what former President Joseph Estrada did in March 2000, where the military launched a major offensive, and the February 11, 2003 unprovoked attack of MILF positions in Buliok Complex in Maguindanao and North Cotabato ordered by President Arroyo.

“Peacemaking is not as easy as what some people imagine. “It is war minus the bullets and bombs. It requires two parties in the conflict to collaborate to make peace, but only one to make war,” Murad pointed out.

Murad issued the statement as members of the Malaysian-led international monitoring team arrived here on Sunday to begin overseeing the cease-fire agreement between the government and their organization.

On July 19, 2003, the government and MILF signed a bilateral cease-fire as part of confidence-building measures for the resumption of decades-old peace talks.

Relatedly, the MILF, while it fully respects the ideologies, policies, and programs of other “revolutionary” groups in the Philippines, is saddened by the controversies among these groups that often resulted in serious misunderstandings and killings.

This expression of grief came in the wake of the killing of Arturo Tabara of Rebolusyonaryong Partido Ng Manggagawa-Pilipinas in Quezon City on September 25, allegedly by New People’s Army assassins.

Days later, NPA spokesman Gregorio Rosal admitted the killing of Tabara, whom they charged of “collaborating with the enemy.”

Muhammad Ameen, secretary to the Office of the Chairman of the MILF Central Committee, said the Front has passed several death verdicts, after due process, against people who were found guilty of collaborating with the enemy.

Acording to him, the MILF could only hope that no further blood is shed due to deep-seated disagreements in any movement.

“There is a similar internal conflict within the ranks of the Moro fighting for their right of self-determination,” he added.

He explained however the Front chose nonantagonistic methods of resolving this dilemma.

“We do not know how other people or groups view our method and experience, whether successful or not, but this is how we do things,” Ameen noted.