Gaddafi envoy back to help reunite factions in MNLF

COTABATO CITY – The special envoy of Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi to Mindanao’s Moro community is back to help a representative of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) iron out the leadership crisis in the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

Accompanying Hadji Salem Adam, who was Libyan ambassador to the Philippines from 2001 to 2006, is Dr. Yusif Sawan, executive director of the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charitable Associations, which has costly humanitarian projects in impoverished areas in the South.

A ranking official of the pan-Islamic OIC, Sayeed Kaseem El-Masry, arrived in Manila early this week for separate dialogues with Nur Misuari and leaders of other MNLF factions in a bid to reconcile them in preparation for the third tripartite review on May 12 of the front’s Sept. 2, 1996 peace pact with the government.

El-Masry held a five-hour, closed-door meeting with Misuari Tuesday night, but declined to reveal the details of their discussions.

Sources close to Misuari, however, conceded that his lawyers briefed El-Masry on the status of the rebellion case which the Philippine government filed against him for leading a failed mutiny in Jolo, capital town of Sulu, in 2001.

The uprising was in protest of Malacañang’s alleged non-compliance with certain provisions of the 1996 peace agreement.   

The tripartite review of the peace accord, which started last November and involved the OIC, Malacañang and the MNLF, is aimed at resolving misunderstandings on the implementation of some sensitive provisions of the pact.

Representing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the tripartite review are ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan and Speaker Paisalin Tago.

“We will meet with leaders of the MNLF from April 19 to 21 in Metro Manila to address the question of unity among them and solve its leadership problem. This is our way of helping the Mindanao peace process,” Adam told reporters via e-mail.

Sources from the Egyptian Embassy said Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, now chairman of the MNLF, and El-Masry, who works directly under the office of OIC secretary-general Ekmelledin Ishanuglo, also had a closed-door meeting in Manila Wednesday night.

ARMM officials are elated over the visit of El-Masry and Adam to help reunite Misuari and his former lieutenants to prevent any backlash in the tripartite review.

“We, in the ARMM, are ready as ever to help, in whatever way possible, within the scope of our administrative and political powers, to hasten the three-way effort of resolving all the misunderstandings on the peace agreement through a tripartite effort by the MNLF, the Arroyo administration and the OIC,” Ampatuan told The STAR.

Some followers of Misuari and Sema earlier said they were not keen on fielding a gubernatorial candidate in the ARMM polls on Aug. 11 out of “respect and courtesy” for Ampatuan, who has been supportive of Malacañang’s peace overtures with the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.