Gov’t scraps meeting between Nur, MILF chief

COTABATO CITY — The government has reportedly cancelled, at the last minute, a supposed meeting in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao today between jailed former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Nur Misuari and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chieftain Al-Haj Murad.

Misuari, founder of the Moro National Liberation Front, was in Davao City last Saturday, on an 18-hour furlough, to attend the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 2, 1996 government-MNLF peace pact.

The Davao City event was jointly organized by former President Fidel Ramos, the Mindanao Peaceweavers, a consortium of different entities involved in various peace-building activities in the South, and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which bankrolls socio-economic projects complementing the Mindanao peace process.

According to MILF news website (www.luwaran.com), Misuari and Murad were supposed to meet today in the MILF enclave in Darapanan district in Sultan Kudarat town.

The Misuari-Murad meeting was planned on the suggestion of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who, as a government negotiator, was involved in the crafting of the 1996 peace accord.

Murad and all members of the MILF central committee reportedly approved of the meeting.

MILF sources, however, said Murad was informed Saturday night that the government had aborted his meeting with Misuari.

The MILF website did not state the reason for the government’s cancellation of the meeting.

Misuari has been detained since 2002 for leading a failed mutiny in Jolo, Sulu in November 2001, two weeks before the fourth ARMM elections, which he feared would boot him out of power.

Peace talks between the government and the MILF, a breakaway faction of the MNLF, started on Jan. 7, 1997, but gained headway only about three years ago with the involvement of Malaysia as a "third-party mediator."

The Organization of Islamic Conference, composed of 58 Muslim states, including Arab petroleum-exporting countries, has been prodding the MILF and the MNLF to reunite to boost the Mindanao peace process.