OIC pleased with MNLF integration into police

Representatives of the Organi-sation of Islamic Conference (OIC) are satisfied with the way the government has integrated 1,500 members of the MNLF into the national police and the armed forces, a report quoted officials as saying.

"The Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is now ready for development," Parouk Hussin, Governor of ARMM in the south, told ABS CBN, a TV network.

Soldiers and MNLF fighters are no longer fighting because the latter now serve as a security force in the ARMM, said Hussin.

The OIC will take part in the development of the ARMM, said Muslimen Sema, mayor of Cotabato City and secretary general of the MNLF Executive Council of 15. Sema noted that the OIC will give undivided attention to the progress of the ARMM.

The OIC brokered the government-MNLF peace talks from 1992 until its conclusion in 1996.

The ARMM comprises the provinces of Maguindanao, Sulu, Lanao del Sur, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and Marawi City. They are considered the country's poorest provinces.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Abdullah of Indonesia, an OIC representative, was quoted as saying that the OIC was "very happy" with the result of the government-MNLF pro autonomy peace settlement in 1996.

Abdullah arrived in Maguindanao Tuesday. He led an advance party of the OIC's Committee of the Eight that went to the ARMM to monitor the implementation of the government-MNLF peace accord.

"The ministers or ambassadors of the Committee of the Eight will come here next month," said Sema. Sema was in charge of the briefing given to the OIC about the progress of the government-MNLF peace accord.

OIC's Committee of Eight is composed of Libya, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Bangladesh and Somalia.

The OIC, through Malaysia and Libya, is also brokering the talks between the government and the MILF, another group.

The MILF became a faction of the MNLF when the latter waged a separatist war that resulted in the killing of 120,000 people in the south.