Misuari: It’s a recipe for another big, big war in Mindanao

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Oct 16, 2012

Moro leader Nur Misuari (sulu.gov.ph photo)

(Inquirer News) – “This framework agreement to me would be a recipe for another big, big war in Mindanao,” Nur Misuari said.

“Cut my throat if Hadji Murad can ensure peace in Mindanao,” Misuari said, referring to Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF, who witnessed the signing of the framework accord in Malacañang Monday with President Aquino and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Misuari, leader of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996, continued to rant Monday against a new peace accord.

The MILF, he said, is “so unpopular in Mindanao.”

He claimed many MILF members returned to the MNLF because they, too, were upset about the framework agreement for the creation of a new autonomous region in Mindanao, to be called Bangsamoro.

Misuari’s extreme pessimism came in sharp contrast to cautious optimism of most Muslims in Mindanao and the guarded optimism of the Catholic Church that greeted the signing in Malacañang yesterday of the preliminary peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

1996 peace deal

But the chair of the MNLF Central Committee lauded the signing of the framework agreement.

“The signing of the government’s agreement with the MILF proved that our decision to enter the 1976 Tripoli Agreement was the right thing to do,” Muslimin Sema, now mayor of Cotabato City, told the Inquirer by phone.

Sema, however, wanted to know how the new agreement would harmonize with the 1996 peace deal with the MNLF.

The answer will come when the Transition Commission begins work on the creation of the Bangsamoro, which will replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).