Muslim, Christian leaders reject use of vigilantes

COTABATO CITY -- The government was urged yesterday to rein in Christian vigilante groups in Central Mindanao.

Muslim and Christian religious leaders fear that the vigilantes could imperil the efforts to resume peace talks between the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Hadji Ahmad Bayam, a peace advocate and former propagandist of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), said the vigilantes could wreak havoc among Mindanao's culturally-diverse peoples if allowed to exist without restraint.

"We do not want a repeat of how the relationship of the Muslims and Christians were wrecked during the 70s by the dreaded government- backed Ilagas, tagged as behind the killings of hundreds of innocent people at the height of the so-called Mindanao conflict," he said.

On the other hand, Hadji Uttoh Salem Cutan, executive director of the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development, said Christians, Muslims, and highlanders are peacefully co-existing in the South as shown by the SPCPD's composition, where all sectors are equally represented.

"We have to make our people understand there are third parties now trying to pit us against each other to suit their vested interests," he said.

The SPCPD was set up as a transitory mechanism to oversee the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement between the government and the MNLF.

Meanwhile, Mayor Datu Muslimmin Seme, who is MNLF secretary general, will broker a dialogue among religious leaders in Central Mindanao on Monday.

"In this most crucial time, the more we need to understand and help each other exhaust all means to resolve all of these problems peacefully, not through firepower that will only make the lives of civilians extremely miserable," he said.

Seme said he would not allow any "third party" to surface in the city and fan the increasing tension now gripping many Muslim and Christian areas in the South.