ZAMBOANGA CITY, 21 October 2005 — Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said yesterday the prospects of a peaceful resolution of the lingering conflict in the southern Philippine region of Mindanao is getting brighter.

Aleem Abdul Aziz Minbantas, the MILF’s deputy chief for military affairs, attributed the positive developments to the strong commitment of the MILF and Arroyo government in ending hostilities in the troubled south.

“The peace talks between the government and the MILF have been yielding positive breakthroughs, which indicate the high prospect of peacefully solving the centuries-old conflict in Mindanao,” Mimbantas said.

Minbantas also cited Malaysian Prime Minister Muhammad Ahmad Badawi and the 60-member International Monitoring Team, headed by Malaysian Maj. Gen. Dato’ Pahlawan Soheimi bin Abbas, for their support to the peace talks.

Malaysia, a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, is brokering the peace talks between the Philippines and the MILF.

“Realizing a peaceful, just and lasting solution to the centuries-old conflict in southern Philippines will not only benefit the Bangsamoro people, but also the entirety of the Filipino people and the neighboring countries in the Asian region,” Mimbantas said.

Confidence-Building Measures

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the MILF is ready to sign new agreements to further hasten the peace talks.

“The MILF is really optimistic about the peace talks. We have signed several new and important agreements that will further hasten the peace process,” he told Arab News yesterday.

Kabalu said the talks are likely to resume after Ramadan to discuss some contentious issues centered on ancestral domain.

Kabalu said both sides have already agreed on several important matters on ancestral domain — its concept, territories and resources, and will negotiate about how the MILF shall govern these places.

“The ancestral domain is the single most important issue in the peace negotiations before the MILF can reach a political settlement,” he said.

Ancestral domain refers to the MILF demand for territory that will constitute a Muslim homeland.

Kabalu said government and rebel peace negotiators agreed on several crucial issues, including the coverage in a proposed ancestral domain of the five Muslim autonomous provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, and other areas in Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani provinces where there are large communities of Muslims and indigenous tribes.

Observers have said that puts the MILF in a much more reasonable light compared to the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) of Nur Misuari, which sought to cover about three-fourths of Mindanao plus Palawan, regardless of the population in those places.

Misuari’s signed a peace pact with Manila on Sept. 2, 1996, which gave Misuari and his lieutenants control of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao and an interim economic development agency.

However, the agreement seemed destined to fail because the question of ancestral domain was never resolved. It was also not supported by the growing MILF, which sought to negotiated a better deal with Manila.

Compromise

Kabalu said the MILF is willing to compromise if only to arrive at an acceptable, reasonable and comprehensive agreement that would include not only the Muslims, but all 18 ethnic tribal groups in Mindanao.

Once an agreement is reached on how the MILF can govern these areas, government and rebel peace negotiators would finally discuss the political settlement of the country’s longest-running Muslim insurgency problem, he said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said early this year that 80 percent of the issues have been resolved and that permanent peace in Mindanao is within reach.

“We have worked with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to forge peace with our Muslim brothers,” Arroyo said in her State of the Nation Address in July.

OIC members have persuaded the MILF to opt for a peaceful settlement with Manila instead of breaking away.

MILF chieftain Murad Ebrahim, for his part, said his group is willing to end hostilities in Mindanao and is sincere in the talks with the government.

“Peace is almost at hand. After decades of unrelenting struggle, our flickering hope for a just and comprehensive political solution to the Bangsamoro problem is rekindled. Our legitimate aspiration for a rightful place in our society has once again assumed its proper shape.”

“Our life-long dream to establish and develop our homeland as a permanent legacy to the next generation of Bangsamoro people, and the generation after that, which they can call their own, will soon — insha’ Allah (God willing) — become a reality,” Ebrahim told about 2 million supporters during a plenum in May in Maguindanao.

The MILF has been fighting for independence since it split with the MNLF in 1978, but Manila said it would not allow the country to be dismembered.