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March 5, 1999, CNN AsiaWeek, Mindanao's Chance, by Antonio Lopez / Manila,

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Manila wants to make peace with a Muslim rebel group still fighting for independence

The decades-long struggle in Mindanao

PRESIDENT JOSEPH ESTRADA is known for his fighting words. He's trying to change that. Estrada was supposed to meet Hashim Salamat, 62, the reclusive and soft-spoken leader of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mindanao, the Philippines' southern island. The meeting, scheduled for Feb. 28, will be the first between the president and the head of the 14,000-strong MILF, which is demanding independence for more than three million Muslim Filipinos (about 17% of Mindanao's population). It is Estrada's first attempt at peacemaking with any of the rebels still fighting Manila. And it is taking place even though his top foreign affairs and defense advisers fret that the president is giving the extremist group more importance than it deserves.

The past month Estrada has received a crash course in negotiating tactics. When Estrada was told in January that the MILF wanted independence, he shot back: "Over my dead body. If they want war, we'll give them war." And then for 10 days, the military engaged the MILF in a series of bloody skirmishes that broke a 1997 ceasefire and turned the group's home base, Maguindanao province, into a no-man's land. About 60 people died, scores were wounded, and 90,000 residents were rendered homeless. In response, the MILF threatened jihad or holy war. They also hinted that the world's No. 1 terrorist, Osama bin Laden, had provided them with some financial assistance. If so, that raises the possibility that radicals could target Manila and other key urban areas. And no one can easily dismiss the fear of Islamic fundamentalism in Mindanao and the extremism that often comes with it. A peace agreement has never looked so necessary.

In Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines, Muslims have been waging an on-again, off-again fight for independence for centuries. Since the early 1970s, an estimated 120,000 people have been killed and some $3 billion in damage has been wrought. In Ferdinand Marcos's time, half of the military's resources and personnel were deployed in Mindanao. Even now, Manila maintains 35,000 troops, 25,000 policemen and a 25,000-strong para-military unit on the island. "We are very much in control," says Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado. "We have proven this in the last encounter. When we hit [the MILF] hard, they ask for peace negotiations."

At the height of the fighting between government and rebel troops, Estrada suddenly decided he was willing to meet with the Cairo-educated MILF chairman. He summoned one of his advisers, Robert Aventajado, from a trip to the U.S. and dispatched him to Mindanao. Aventajado had a one-on-one talk with Salamat deep inside the MILF's sprawling main camp, Abubakar, in Maguindanao province on Feb. 4. They had lunch and then withdrew into Salamat's bedroom for coffee.

Aventajado told Salamat the president "intends to help the Muslim people in their economic development and in achieving social justice." Salamat replied: "We have not lost confidence in the national government in spite of the fighting." They agreed on two points: peace negotiations would proceed; and Salamat would meet the president, even somewhere other than the safe haven of Camp Abubakar. Aventajado says that Estrada and Salamat had to talk face-to-face "because a big amount of goodwill had been lost in 10 days of fighting."

The meeting comes at a time of great anxiety in Mindanao. On Feb. 17, communist New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas seized an army brigadier general and a captain outside of Davao City, in eastern Mindanao. The general is the highest-ranking officer ever to be abducted. On Feb. 24, the president halted peace talks with the NPA because of the kidnapping. In recent months, the group has revived its armed attacks after years of lying low. According to military intelligence, the NPA and the MILF have formed an alliance in southern Mindanao, where the rebel groups maintain camps in close proximity. They have supposedly agreed to conduct joint attacks and training exchanges and to share weapons.

Mindanao also has to contend with Abu Sayyaf, a MILF splinter group with strong radical leanings. The military says the two still are allies. But Salamat told Aventajado: "We don't have connections with [them]." Abu Sayyaf's leader, Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, once the Philippines' most-wanted man, was killed in a clash with government troops in mid-December. Now the rebels are seeking to avenge his death. On Jan. 2, at least 10 people died and more than 70 were wounded in a grenade explosion in Sulu province that was blamed on the Abu Sayyaf. Real peace is still a ways off in Mindanao.

The Estrada-Salamat discussion will focus on only two issues: how to hasten Mindanao's economic development and how to ensure the peaceful resolution of the conflict. In other words, "the demand for independence will not be discussed," says Aventajado. That leaves autonomy, which could be wide-ranging. "When you talk of autonomy, you talk of not only physical territory," says Aventajado, "you talk of things like shariah courts and [religious] schools. Autonomy is not a quick fix."

MINDANAO'S CHANCE

Page 2

The decades-long struggle in mindanao 

THERE IS ALREADY A MODEL for Manila to follow, but the MILF may not be interested. The government signed a peace agreement with Nurullaji "Nur" Misuari, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, in 1996. (Salamat had been Misuari's No. 2 until he broke away from the MNLF to form the MILF in 1978.) For a semblance of autonomy, Manila created the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development. Misuari was also elected governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which comprises four of the island's provinces and about two million people. The MILF, however, rejected the peace agreement with Manila and continued its armed struggle. The MILF is still skeptical of the deal. "It is a weak form of autonomy," sneers Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice chairman for political affairs. "It cannot solve the Muslim problem. The greater majority of people no longer believe in the autonomous government."

Estrada may have a better chance of winning over the MILF with his development promises. He has proposed several mega-projects in Mindanao's Muslim areas. They are, or will be, supervised by Aventajado, who is also the chairman of the Southern Philippines Development Authority. The projects include: a $266-million sugar mill and refinery to be completed by 2001; a $69-million irrigation program; a $200-million 2-km bridge that would connect the Christian province of Misamis Occidental to the Muslim province of Lanao del Norte; a 1,400-km railroad that would circle the entire island of Mindanao; and the integration of an already existing airport and seaport into a single port authority. Salamat likes the idea of these projects, says Jaafar, "as long as they will benefit the residents of the area and will not displace them."

Although Mindanao produces 25% of the nation's rice and 70% of its corn, the island's economic prospects are uncertain. There are other natural resources - gold, timber, oil - but they have not been put to good use. A slow-moving political system seems to have gotten in the way. Consider where Misuari, the rebel-turned-administrator, stands now. He has been in office for two-and-a-half years, but the ARMM has little to show for it. No big infrastructure projects are anywhere near completion. From 1990 to 1999, Manila allotted some $600 million for the autonomous region. Misuari has a 1999 budget of $111 million; most of that, he claims, will go to pay the region's 19,000 employees. "We cannot do anything," he says. "We have to put up with it [the bureaucracy]."

As for the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development, once the great hope for Mindanao, Misuari says: "The SPCPD was supposed to be a dynamic institution. At the end, they [opponents of the SPCPD led by Mindanao's Christian congressmen] changed their mind. They went to the Supreme Court to question the SPCPD. And so the peace agreement has been victimized." Misuari says that Manila has delayed dispersing some money because of local opposition to the council. The only other source of money is the United Nations; its funds, says Misuari, go to council salaries.

In mid-February, the Philippine Senate took the unprecedented step of forming a seven-member oversight committee for Mindanao. "We want to know what's going on in the region," says Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, author of the resolution. "We want to know whether the ARMM and the SPCPD are the pacifiers or the milk." He adds: "If Misuari has proven that the ARMM cannot work, then it might not be the correct structure to solve Mindanao's problems. Misuari may not be at fault, the structure of ARMM itself [may be]."

Meanwhile, Misuari has apparently been marginalized in the government's efforts to seek a peace agreement with the MILF. Does he approve of Salamat's decision to meet Estrada? "I don't want to comment on the affairs of my brothers in the MILF," Misuari says. As the fighting raged in January, the governor was silent. He didn't try to exert his influence over his former comrades-in-arms. "It is war between the government and the MILF," he says. "I hope people will understand that it is not even my duty to intervene between those two forces." But Misuari says that he did prevent his MNLF soldiers from attacking a state power plant with the MILF. The MNLF also wanted to join in raids in Davao City and the Caraga region, he claims. But, says Misuari: "I called on my brothers not to join the effort." That counts as progress in Mindanao these days.

 

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