OIC urges Muslim groups in Philippines to close ranks

Manila: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called anew on the two leading Moro groups to close ranks on issues of interest to Mindanao.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, OIC Secretary General, in a message he sent on the occasion of the “Moro Leaders’ Assembly” sponsored by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last July 6-9, 2012, said the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) should close their ranks and put up a unified stand for the achievement of their aspiration in Mindanao.

“This day will be marked in the annals of the Bangsamoro struggle as a landmark in their march towards uniting their ranks. The OIC has been calling for this unity for a long time now, as we are convinced that it is a fundamental requirement for the achievement of your just goals,” Ihsanoglu was quoted as saying in a speech read by his representative to the Moro Leaders’ Assembly.

“The OIC is trying to set up a Bangsamoro Coordination Forum between the MILF and the MNLF, and I seize this opportunity to appeal once again to the two fronts to make this forum operative before the next meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers scheduled to be held in November.”

For several years, the OIC had been calling on the MILF and the MNLF to present a common stand on issues concerning the Bangsamoro, but apparently, the MNLF had refused to do so for some reasons.

The OIC in 1977 had recognised the MNLF and had given it the status of an “observer” in the select organisation of 57 states. But sometime in the mid 1990s, certain key members of the MNLF split from the main body to form the MILF.

The MNLF main group led by the Nur Misuari, signed a peace agreement with the then government of President Fidel Ramos in 1997. The MILF, led by its chair, Murad Ebrahim, is currently at a homestretch of signing a peace pact with the current administration of President Benigno Aquino III.

Ebrahim, during an interview with reporters in the MILF headquarters Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao recently, said he has nothing against unifying with the MNLF, which is led by its chairman emeritus Misuari.

“With the MNLF-MILF unification issue, in 2003 we met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to have a solidarity conference. There had been an effort exerted by the MILF under the facilitation of the OIC but sad to say that it failed when Chairman Nur Misuari disowned the 15-man council of the MNLF while the talk was in its midway. In May of 2010, the OIC initiated a meeting in Saudi Arabia wherein five series of meetings took place but really Nur is not quite keen on the agreement” Ebarahim was quoted by the MILF’s Luwaran website as saying.

“The MILF accepted the creation of the Forum without reservation, but the MNLF has yet to formally accept it,” Luwaran said.