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MILFs Murad: Peace talks can swing either way
| The politix of dhimmitude on display in the Philippines. Long but informative. |
The chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has issued a statement warning that the peace process with the government is passing through a "turbulent area" and the sign "belts on" is switched. While acknowledging that negotiation is still the best option to resolve the conflict in Mindanao, MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, the MILF peace panel chair from March 2001 to July 2003 when he assumed the chairmanship after Salamat Hashims death, noted that if the government insists to dilly dally and treat the peace talks as mere counterinsurgency tool, who can blame the Bangsamoro people if they choose other means to continue their legitimate struggle for freedom and self-determination?| Generally, I don't blame the Bangsamoro people. But I do blame the Soddy money, the Soddy holy men, and their sycophantic press lackeys and spineless craven politicians. Meh. |
Government peace panel chair Silvestre Afable in a statement issued in response to Iqbals statement on September 13, said the government had presented Constitutional options on the negotiating table consistent with socio-demographic realities and equitable development that will ensure just and durable peace. This is pragmatic peace building in the 21st century and not the outmoded counterinsurgency model of the cold war, Afable said.| "I believe we shall have peace in our time, and I believe I shall have another shrimp cocktail." |
Murad said the government must take responsibility for this breakdown of the talks, adding it is not serious enough in its formulation on (the) strand on territory of the ancestral domain aspect of the Tripoli Agreement of 2001 by offering the MILF inclusion of some areas for the proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity subject to constitutional processes.
This is a conditional offer that no real revolutionary group worthy of its name can accept. This will only repeat the failure of the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement of 1996 that until now the government has never complied with fully.Do we need to replicate this failure, prolong the sufferings of the people, and extend the war in Mindanao? Murad asked.| "Here's my velvet glove. Wanna see my steel fist?" |
In his Sept. 13 statement, Afable stressed that in addressing the roots of the conflict, his panel supported concrete proposals for MILF leadership development, the preservation of the Islamic heritage, firm control of resources, and economic independence within the ancestral domain. All these are on the record.
What the MILF wants is an extra-Constitutional solution to the issue of territory, which is not possible to negotiate under the present terms of reference of the GRP peace panel. Discussions of a Constitutional nature can be done with the framers once the opportunity presents itself in the future, he said. Nevertheless, the GRP Panel will continue to propose options for consideration until a meeting of minds can be reconnected after this impasse, Afable said.
Posted by: Seafarious 2006-09-22 |
