COTABATO CITY, 12 April — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday expressed sympathy and solidarity with Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) whose headquarters at the West Bank had been subject of attacks by the Israeli Army.
In an interview, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu pointed out that the PLO situation is almost similar with that of the Bangsamoro in Mindanao. He cited, among others, the issue on Palestinian land which were taken from them to give way to the establishment of the so called Israeli state in 1947.
In the same manner, he said, the Bangsamoro homeland were “illegally and immorally annexed and become part of the Philippine Commonwealth government established in 1946 under the Americans, and without the benefit of referendum.”
Israel had simply ignored numerous United Nations’s resolution enjoining Israeli troops to pull out of Palestinian land.
In the Philippines, said Kabalu, a dozen peace agreements had likewise been signed between the government and the MILF but the government always finds ways of evading the agreement.
“Apparently, the government is only using the peace negotiations, as an instrument, among others, to promote its image before the Muslim world and the international community, and that there is no sincerity on its part to find peaceful political solution to the Mindanao problem,” Kabalu charged.
“For instance, the MILF had repeatedly asked the government to provide some kind of master plan or political package showing how they are going to address the Mindanao problem. “Unfortunately, the government could only furnish the new Organic Law for Muslim Mindanao which is intended for the implementation of the GRP-MNLF 1996 Final Peace Agreement,” he said.
In Manila, Vice President and Foreign Secretary Teofisto Guingona said the Philippines “strongly believes” that the withdrawal of Israeli forces was “paramount in arriving at a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
Guingona issued the statement after meeting last Monday with ambassadors of Organization of the Islamic Conference countries, who sought the Philippines’ support for a call on the withdrawal of Israeli forces in Palestinian territories.
