Reds, Activists Urge MILF to Reject U.S. as Peace Broker

Critics advise the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to rebuff proposals for   a U.S. peace broker role in the stalled peace talks with the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. The U.S. is not only dumping troops to back the Armed Forces operations against the Moro guerrillas in Mindanao but welcomes threats by Arroyo officials to declare the MILF “terrorist.”

By Gerry Albert Corpuz 
Bulatlat.com

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) last week advised the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to keep the United States out of the peace negotiations between the government and the Moro separatist group.

In a press statement e-mailed to Bulatlat.com CPP spokesperson Gregorio " Ka Roger" Rosal said the United States has dubious interest to intervene in the peace talks with the MILF. He said that U.S. government is not in a position to mediate in the talks, as it is totally foreign to the question.

Earlier lawmakers from the south headed by opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr and House Deputy speaker and Basilan Representative Gerry Salapuddin supported the proposal to let the United States act as third party peace broker between the government and the Moro separatist group.

The MILF leadership was also open to the idea provided that the U.S. will just play a supporting role to Malaysia's lead role in facilitating the talks between the Macapagal-Arroyo administration and the MILF.

"How can the U.S. serve as mediator when it has been wanting to deploy its combat troops against the MILF and in the same breath threatening the MILF with U.S. outright military intervention if its intercessions fail?" Rosal said.

The CPP, which maintained a tactical alliance with the MILF also said the U.S. all along, regarded the MILF as terrorist and has been giving all-out support to the AFP's campaign of suppression against the Moro people.

CPP's Rosal accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency of blackmailing the MILF. He said the CIA maintains a terrorist cell in the country, which is behind the bombings in Mindanao. Rosal asserted that bomb attacks were meant to be blamed on the MILF so Malacañang and the Washington government
could tag it a “terrorist organization.”

As of last quarter last year, the United States already floated the idea that the MILF has links with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network of Saudi billionaire Osama-Bin Laden and that the group had allowed members of the Jemaah Islamiyah group to train in alleged MILF camps for terror activities.

But these were outrightly denied by the MILF leadership accusing the White House and the Pentagon for laying the grounds for the inclusion of the MILF in U.S. State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.

U.S. miscast as peace broker

The left-leaning fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) echoed Rosal's call to the MILF to shun any plan for U.S. mediation in the peace talks with the government saying the U.S. as a third party mediator was a miscast.

"While we fully support the resumption of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF, the idea of U.S. getting involved in the peace talks as third party mediator was not a bright one," said Fernando Hicap, the group's chair.

"The U.S. is not fit for the job. Giving the world's no.1 terrorist nation the plum role of a peace maker negates the true meaning of peace and justice," Hicap added.

Pamalakaya said it is in the criminal and corrupt interest of the United States to include the MILF in its list of “terrorist organizations.” The group said Washington and the real Pentagon gang in the United States view the MILF as a major political obstacle to its military and corporate interests in southern Philippines and Southeast Asia.

The group said the level of distrust on the United States is 101 percent given its status as the leading promoter of unjust war and global oppression. Pamalakaya said it is politically correct to junk the U.S. as
third party mediator to the peace talks.

Hate campaign

Pamalakaya also assailed Presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao for issuing an anti-terrorist advisory in Mindanao based on intelligence reports given the military to Malacañang. Tiglao last week warned the
public about the supposed plan of the MILF to bomb crowded places across Mindanao.

The militant group said Tiglao's statement was meant to demonize the MILF and revive the hate campaign against the Moro people. "If there are bombings, these would not come from MILF but from terrorist squads commissioned by Malacañang to bomb places in Mindanao and later blamed it to the MILF," Pamalakaya said.

Tiglao said up to 80 MILF members were deployed to bomb several places in Mindanao in retaliation for the military's ongoing air strikes and ground assaults against alleged MILF terror cites in Mindanao. "Mr. Tiglao now joins the league of Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and National Security Adviser Roilo J. Golez, two of Arroyo's most brutal generals," the group added.

War of will and vision

Meanwhile, participants to the Muslim Christian Interfaith Conference called on President Arroyo to withdraw her order to launch a  “war of will and vision" against alleged "terrorist cells" in Mindanao.

Describing their group as a cross-section of religious leaders from the Christian and Muslim faiths, the Moro-Christian group said the government should instead ask the GRP to pave the way for the resumption of peace talks.

Amirah Ali Lidasan, secretary general of the Moro Christian People's Alliance (MCPA) and one of organizers of the interfaith conference said the Macapagal-Arroyo government should not sacrifice millions of Filipino people in the south to the altar of US directed war in Mindanao.

"Graver human tragedy has been the only consistent gain from the government's militarist treatment of the conflict in Mindanao," Lidasan said. "Majority of what the military considers as ‘collateral damage' are the Moro people," she added.

According to Lidasan, hundreds of civilians were arbitrarily arrested and forced to pose as military's fall guys in the AFP's all-out drive to flush out the MILF rebels. In Munai, Lanao del Norte, Lidasan said an
additional 25,000 civilians fled to safer grounds at the height of the military offensive in the province. Bulatlat.com

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