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By Al Jacinto, Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Moro Resistance and
Liberation Organization (MRLO) on Friday urged other Muslim rebels
to continue their armed struggle for independence after Manila
recently scrapped a territorial deal and launched a massive
offensive during Ramadan.
The MRLO, which is also fighting for
independence in the troubled South, accused the Philippine
government of insincerity in negotiating peace with the MILF (Moro
Islamic Liberation Front), the country’s largest Muslim rebel
group.
Omar Mukhtar, the leader of the liberation
organization, strongly criticized President Gloria Arroyo for
continued government offensive against the MILF rebels in Mindanao
despite the Muslims’ observance of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest
month.
“The MRLO is urging the MILF to continue with
its armed struggle together with other revolutionary forces,” he
said in a statement.
The MILF also on Friday said it was honoring a
three-year-old ceasefire, and that it remains committed to pursuing
peace negotiations with the government.
But it rejected President Arroyo’s demand to
disarm before the negotiations can resume.
“We continue to uphold the peace path as still
the best way forward to address the centuries-old Bangsamoro problem
in Mindanao,” MILF Vice Chairman Ghazali Jaafar said in a
statement.
In egging on the MILF to fight, Mukhtar quoted a
passage from the Koran, Surah Al Baqarah Chapter 2:190, that reads:
“. . . You should only fight those who commit aggression against
you and leave you no option but to fight. This war will be in the
way of Allah Almighty i.e. for the protection of humanity from
tyranny and oppression—but even in this war the limits of Law must
not be transgressed, for such transgression is against the Laws of
Allah.”
He also criticized the ancestral-domain deal
that government and rebel peace negotiators initially signed in
July, saying it would compromise the aspiration and
self-determination of Muslims in the Philippines.
Mukhtar denounced, too, the government demands
for the MILF to surrender rebel leaders Umbra Kato and Abdurahman
Macapaar or Bravo, who are blamed for last month’s attacks in
Mindanao, and to disarm before peace talks could resume.
“The MILF should remain firm in its demand for
self-determination and fight for the rights of the Bangsamoro
people,” he said.
Little-known MRLO
Little is known about the Moro Resistance and
Liberation Organization, but it was formed on June 27, 2005 and
since then has allied itself with the communist New People’s Army
in Mindanao.
The MILF also on Friday said it would continue
to uphold peace in Mindanao and called on the United Nations and
other aid agencies to help war refugees, estimated at half a
million, in the restive region.
It also called on human-rights groups and other
non-partisan organizations to investigate abuses perpetrated both by
rebels and soldiers in Mindanao to give justice to the victims.
The MILF said it was willing to negotiate on DDR,
or disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of rebels, but it
should be in the last part of the peace talks.
“The DDR approach as the government new road
map to peace is part of successful conflict resolutions in many
parts of the world. It [forms] part of comprehensive peace
settlements, but it is the last item in the talks,” it added.
“[But] when DDR is taken up ahead of the
comprehensive peace settlement, it is interpreted to be a military
approach, not part of a political approach, as in the case of the
Philippines, contrary to what President Gloria Arroyo said early on
in 2001 when he replaced the all-out war policy of President Joseph
Estrada with an all-out peace policy,” it said.
President Arroyo opened peace talks with the
MILF in 2001 after grabbing power from Estrada in a military-backed
civilian revolt.
She also was urged by Jaro Archbishop Angel
Lagdameo, also the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference
of the Philippines, to resume the negotiations despite disbandment
of the government peace panel.
Reinforcement deployed
Also on Friday, at least 1,000 troops were
rushed to Mindanao to escort food-aid shipments and protect
residents after a major upsurge of Muslim separatist violence there.
Two infantry battalions redeployed to the South
in the past few days, said military spokesman Brig. Gen. Jorge
Segovia. He added that the military units would help in the relief
effort, amid reports that armed men have disrupted the supply of
emergency food rations to hundreds of thousands of civilians
displaced by a flare-up in the conflict.
The attacks led by Kato and Bravo in August left
dozens of civilians, soldiers and rebels dead.
Food aid intercepted
A Manila spokeswoman for the United Nations
World Food Program said one of its food-aid convoys was stopped on
Wednesday by unknown armed men who unloaded and carted away 28 bags
of rice.
Segovia said the authorities were checking
reports that MILF rebels had been stopping food convoys. He rejected
local news reports that the military had blocked some of these
missions. Segovia, though, warned that military checkpoints would
prevent aid workers from entering areas where their safety could not
be ensured.
Mindanao, the homeland of a 4.5 million-strong
Islamic minority that has seen bouts of separatist rebellion in the
past 40 years, has been “relatively peaceful” this week, Segovia
said.
The lull, which followed the start of the Muslim
fasting month of Ramadan, was disturbed only by small-scale
harassment of military units.
The government also on Friday doubled to P10
million [about $213,000 do] the bounty on each of Kato and Bravo,
police said. A reward of P5 million was offered for the arrest of
another MILF leader, Aleem Sulaiman Pangalian. (See related story on
A7.)
The attacks came after the Supreme Court on
August 4 stopped the signing of a homeland deal between Manila and
the MILF.
The President this week dissolved the
government’s peace negotiating team with the rebels.
Still, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza appealed to
critics to help the administration instead of attacking it on its
handling of the Muslim rebellion. He was reacting to calls made by
some senators asking Mrs. Arroyo to sack the chief adviser on the
peace process, Hermogenes Esperon Jr., whom they said was to blame
for setbacks to the peace process.
The same appeal was made by House Speaker
Prospero Nograles and Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Simeon Datumanong.
Nograles’ recent suggestion that the critics
sit with the administration in renewed talks with the MILF was
rejected by the United Opposition (UNO).
A successful peace accord with the MILF under
Mrs. Arroyo is “very remote and it is better to wait for a
legitimate president in 2010,” said the UNO spokesman, lawyer Adel
Tamano. He added that the “element of trust has been wasted thus
making it more difficult to attain positive results.”
Earlier, the Liberal Party President Sen. Manuel
“Mar” Roxas 2nd also rejected the proposal for him to lead the
renewed peace negotiations, saying that the task belonged to the
Executive department.
-- Jefferson Antiporda, Anthony Vargas, James Konstantin Galvez,
Jomar Canlas and AFP
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