OIC official calls for implementation of peace agreement in Philippines

A top official of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) has called for the full enforcement of a 14-year-long peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

In a statement during the special Non-Aligned Movement ministerial meeting in Manila, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said the Philippine government and the MNLF must work together to achieve the full implementation of the agreement.

The OIC backed the peace negotiations involving the MNLF that led to the signing of the landmark 1996 peace agreement which, according to the former rebel group, has not been fully enforced by the government.

MNLF leaders said the Philippine government has failed to deliver economic and development assistance and political reforms pledged under the peace accord.

Ihsanoglu also said that the OIC welcomes the resumption of Malaysian-brokered talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which broke away from the MNLF when it signed a peace accord with the government in 1996.

"We hope that it will lead to positive results that would bring development and peaceful environment among followers of different faiths and nations," the OIC official said.

Government negotiators and the 11,000-strong MILF, the largest group battling for self-rule in southern Mindanao, resumed talks in January following a yearlong impasse.

The protracted war in Mindanao has claimed at least 120,000 lives, brought massive destruction to property, and crippled local economy.

But with barely four months left of the Arroyo administration, Philippine government and MILF officials acknowledged that a final peace deal, which is expected to end more than four decades of Muslim rebellion in Mindanao , may not be achieved.

The MNLF used to be the largest Muslim rebel group seeking a separate state in Mindanao until it dropped secessionist demand and settled for limited autonomy under the 1996 accord. But many of its guerillas held on to their firearms and periodically staged rebellions in the past, complaining the government has reneged on its promise to develop full Muslim regions.

Source: Xinhua