Thursday, October 30, 2008

NEWS: International guarantee first before peace talks resumption -- MILF

By Taher G. Solaiman

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is willing to return to the negotiating table when there is "an international guarantee.”

This was the statement given to the media early this week by Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chair on political affairs.

“Any bilateral agreement between the government and the MILF should be made binding before the international community and should not be unilaterally disowned by one party,” Jaafar said referring to the aborted signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) on August 5, 2008 that led to series of heavy fightings between government troops and MILF guerrillas in various parts of Mindanao.

Jaafar also expressed the willingness of the MILF to sign and honor a document stating that the MILF will not secede from the Philippines even as he asserted that the government should honor its commitment to give the Bangsamoro people their homeland as stipulated in the MOA-AD.

He identified the European Union (EU) as a possible guarantor in the resumption of the peace talks between the GRP and the MILF.

He also could not help but expressed his pessimism that the MILF cannot get domestic relief from this government.

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