MILF PANEL WANTS GMA TO HEAD GOVT NEGOTIATORS

Cagayan de Oro City, July 7, 2003 (Star) Separatist rebels in Mindanao want President Arroyo to head the government peace panel so she could face Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Hashim Salamat across the negotiating table.

"This is to give the same dose of medicine to the government which has been demanding for Salamat to head the MILF negotiating panel," said Jun Mantawil, chairman of the MILF peace panel secretariat.

In a statement in the MILF website, luwaran.com Friday, Mantawil said there is "a movement of ideas" to ask the government to name Mrs. Arroyo as head of the government panel.

Quoting a senior member of the MILF’s central committee, Mantawil said that while this idea is "gaining ground," it has not been submitted to a vote.

On the other hand, Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security, said Salamat must head the MILF peace panel.

"Owing to what we know that he is the top person of the MILF, he has to be there because unless there is face-to-face talks, other members of their central command will all have their versions (of the agreements)," he said.

In an interview after the launching of the Young Farmers Program at the Grand Caprice Restaurant at the Limketkai Complex here, Magsaysay said MILF rebels are not as

disciplined as government troops that their leaders don’t agree with one another while peace talks are going on.

"That is a problem," he said. "Are they united? Are they disciplined and do they have the level of sincerity to pursue the peace process? We will find these out if it is a face-to-face meeting."

Meanwhile, a team of American citizens versed on the secessionist problem in Mindanao will be sent to the country to help the Arroyo administration negotiate peace with the MILF.

The pledge was made by Ambassador Richard Solomon, US Institute of Peace (USIP) president, in Washington D.C. last week, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday.

However, Pimentel said Solomon did not give details on how they would go about their mission.

"American citizens knowledgeable about the situation in Mindanao and the Moro rebellion will be tapped to do the job," he said.

"I urged that USIP act as soon as possible to jumpstart the peace talks so that further violence in Mindanao would be avoided."

Solomon told him the US government is determined to help forge a political settlement between the government and the MILF, especially now that Salamat has renounced terrorism as a means to achieve political goals, Pimentel added.

Both Manila and Washington have said that the US will only play a supporting role in the peace talks.

The USIP, a foreign policy think tank established in 1984 and funded by the US government, has been tasked by the Bush administration to backstop its policy to extend diplomatic and financial assistance to the peace negotiations in Mindanao.

It is an independent, non-partisan federal institution mandated "to support the development, transmission and use of knowledge to promote peace and curb violent international conflicts."

It also facilitates the resolution of international disputes by "organizing and supporting dialogues within and among parties to conflicts and providing technical assistance, addressing emerging, ongoing and recent disputes in areas of high priority to the US."

The USIP also supports policy makers in the legislative and executive branches of government by "providing independent and creative assessments of how to deal with international conflicts by political means."–Bong Fabe