Misuari’s hardline stance led to MILF’s creation

COTABATO CITY — If not for Nur Misuari’s hardline stance, a faction that would become the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would not have splintered off the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) almost two decades ago.

Highly placed MNLF sources told The STAR yesterday Misuari "harbors bitterness" toward the MILF, which is led by Salamat Hashim, an Egyptian-trained Islamic theologian.

"It could be possibly due to the embarrassment he (Misuari) experienced when Ustadz Salamat and 57 other MNLF commanders, petitioned the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) in 1976 to oust him as the MNLF’s chairman due to his mismanagement of the front," the sources said.

Misuari was removed as MNLF chairman last April 23 because he was said to have "lost" the trust and confidence of the majority of the organization’s members.

The MNLF is now headed by the so-called Council of 15, a core of key leaders – among them Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema and Sulu Gov. Yusoph Jikiri.

Muhaquer Iqbal, MILF information committee chairman, said efforts to reconcile Misuari and Salamat and to reunite the MNLF and MILF started in the early 1980s upon the initiative of the OIC and the Muslim World League (MWL).

On Dec. 26, 1977, Salamat and his followers signed the two-page "Instrument of Takeover" in which they declared their "absolute rejection" of Misuari’s leadership.

Salamat sent a copy of the document to then OIC secretary general Ahmadou Karim Gaye, and which was circulated to different Islamic organizations abroad.

Hadji Ahmad Bayam, former MNLF chief propagandist in Central Mindanao, said the OIC initiated efforts to reconcile Misuari and Salamat to prevent the MNLF’s fragmentation.

In 1983, Salamat established the MILF after MWL secretary general Mohamad Ali Haratan failed to reconcile him and Misuari, and set up his headquarters in Camp Abubakar in the hinterlands along the border of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

In November 1990, the OIC sent deputy secretary general Saleh Bak’r to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to try to convince the MNLF and the MILF to put up a "common and expanded negotiating panel" to deal with the government.

Salamat was open to the idea but wanted the MILF to be recognized as a "separate entity" in the expanded panel, which in turn was opposed by the MNLF.

The MNLF signed a peace treaty with the government on Sept. 2, 1996.

On Jan. 7, 1997, the MILF started peace talks with the government, but Misuari appeared to be "lukewarm" to the idea.

Three weeks after the talks opened, Misuari said in a radio interview: "The ink we used in signing the Sept. 3 1996 GRP-MNLF peace pact has not even dried and now the government is holding a peace negotiation with another group."

After taking over from Misuari, the Council of 15 immediately initiated backchannel dialogues with the MILF central committee for the MNLF-MILF reunification.