| For a guy who's s'posed to be mouldering in durance vile, this guy sure gets around a lot... |
The OIC, which brokered the GRP-MILF peace talks concluded in the 1996 final peace agreement, has invited the government and the MNLF for a meeting in Jeddah to review the implementation of the peace agreement, recommend proposals and set up monitoring mechanisms. Congress participants said they would not allow any MNLF leader to represent the Bangsamoro in the Jeddah meeting without Misuari heading the delegation.“Part of the resolution drawn from that consultative congress is to allow Prof. Misuari to select who will comprise the MNLF delegation,” Haji Gapul Hadjirul, MNLF national coordinator, said in an interview. He added that not one from the “Council of 15” who bolted the MNLF mainstream is included in the draft list of MNLF delegation.” The 15, he said, “allowed themselves to be used by the government in order to weaken the MNLF.”
The government, Hadjirul said, claims that it implemented 80 percent of the 1996 agreement. In reality, he stressed, only the integration of the MNLF forces to the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police have been almost completely complied with. Hadjirul explained that the 1996 peace agreement is the “mechanism” to implement the 1976 Tripoli Agreement which called for the establishment of an “autonomous Bangsamoro Homeland” having 13 provinces in the island of Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan and Basilan. He said he was tasked by Misuari to supervise the conduct of the series of congresses during a meeting with the chair early in November in New Manila, Quezon City where Misuari is now under house arrest.
Hadjirul accused the government of being “insincere” when it “unilaterally, and without
In his speech in Davao City last Sept. 2, the 10th year anniversary of the signing of the 1996 settlement, Misuari said the “agreement” is already dead and must thus be “exhumed and revived” if the government wants peace to prevail in Mindanao. Misuari has been detained since January 2002 on rebellion charges for the November 2001 uprising of his men in Sulu and Cabatangan in Zamboanga City. During the Pikit consultative congress last Dec. 9, Misuari thanked his supporters through a mobile phone call. He said he will seek a special meeting with the OIC secretary-general and the King of Saudi Arabia during the tripartite meeting February next year. Hadjirul called on the Bangsamoro people to pray for the success of the tripartite meeting. “Or else, we may again go back to square one,” he warned.