Salamat-Dureza meet aborted

DAVAO CITY — The presence of military personnel has reportedly prevented Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Hashim Salamat from meeting with Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza in an undisclosed place in North Cotabato last Saturday.

Dureza, who heads the government peace panel, was supposed to meet with Salamat to discuss certain issues, primarily the resumption of peace talks.

The aborted meeting would have also laid the groundwork for the visit of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to certain areas in Central Mindanao on Wednesday.

The President was reportedly slated to hold a multisectoral dialogue inside Camp Abubakar, the MILF’s former main enclave in Maguindanao which the military overran last year.

Salamat instead sent three emissaries to meet with Dureza at an elementary school inside Camp Rajah Muda in Pikit, North Cotabato. The camp used to be the MILF’s third largest territory until government forces seized it in 1997.

Sources said Salamat decided to call off the meeting after the MILF detected the presence of military men, who were apparently providing security to Dureza and his party.

Salamat sent Nasser Ali, Jun Esmael and Odin Abubakar to convey to Dureza that the MILF leadership is slowly regaining its confidence in the government.

Dureza, for his part, handed a letter to Salamat’s emissaries, after overseeing the distribution of at least 600 sacks of rice and 200 sacks of corn seeds to evacuees at Camp Rajah Muda.

Meanwhile, the Arroyo government has stepped up its confidence-building measures with the MILF by addressing the concerns of over 20,000 villagers displaced by hostilities between military and separatist forces last year.

Dureza, the secretary-general and chief operating officer of Interact-Mindanao, an inter-agency committee tasked to oversee rehabilitation of affected communities, assured Salamat, through his emissaries, that the government will continue to address the needs of the Bang-samoro people.

Dureza said the government remains hopeful that the MILF will positively respond to its twin peace initiatives of suspending military operations and withdrawing charges against its leaders linked to the Dec. 30 bombings in Metro Manila.