STOP THE MILITARY OFFENSIVES, RESUME PEACE TALKS NOW! (tags)
The Alliance Philippines (AJLPP) expresses serious concern on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) warned of a full-blown war with the peace process “in purgatory” after the government told the Supreme Court on Friday that a Moro homeland deal had been scrapped. The AJLPP also are very wary about reports that more than 400,000 people in Mindanao have been affected or dislocated by the heavy fighting as Ramadan sets in. MILF chief negotiator Mohaqher Iqbal told Reuters news agency that the MILF was no longer confident it could strike a final peace agreement under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration. “We might as well wait for the next president after the 2010 elections,” Iqbal said. “She is just trying to save her own neck. That’s why she was not willing to defend the peace agreement and was also willing to sacrifice everything just to stay in power.”
FIGHTING CONTINUES AS RAMADAN BEGINS (tags)
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Sunday warned of a full-blown war with the peace process “in purgatory” after the government told the Supreme Court on Friday that a Moro homeland deal had been scrapped. MILF chief negotiator Mohaqher Iqbal told Reuters news agency that the MILF was no longer confident it could strike a final peace agreement under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration.
AJLPP Express Deep Concern Over MILF-GRP Talks:Gov’t chief peace negotiator for MILF quits (tags)
The Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace (AJLPP) today expressed apprehensions over the sudden and unexplained resignation of Silvestre Afable Jr. , government negotiator for peace process for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) MILF equally expressed fears that negotiations for a peace agreement with the government would have to start from scratch again as a result of the resignation of the chief of the government’s peace panel, Silvestre Afable. AJLPP is deeply concerned that Afable’s resignation came at a time when the government and the MILF were close to restarting talks on a proposed ancestral homeland for 3 million Muslims in Mindanao. AJLPP knows that Afable who was a former staffer of DND Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile,has served since the two sides agreed to return to negotiations after hostilities erupted in February 2003.
MILF CALLS FOR DEFENSE OF THE HOMELAND (tags)
Moro Islamic Liberation Front chairman Murad Ebrahim has called on his fellow Muslims and members of the indigenous communities to stand up together and defend their "homeland." Murad issued the call following last week's stalemate in the peace negotiations