COTABATO CITY, 14 May 2003 — The government yesterday said it will officially declare the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) a terrorist organization if it doesn’t stop attacking civilians and don’t take tangible steps toward ending violence in the southern Philippines within two weeks.
The MILF — blamed for a bomb attack that killed 10 people on Saturday in Koronadal City — has until June 1 to renounce terrorism and turn over members responsible for recent attacks on civilians, said presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye.
Otherwise, the government will declare the MILF a terrorist organization and ask the United States to include the group on its own terrorist list, Bunye said. The ultimatum was given after a Cabinet security committee met on the issue late Monday.
The government has been reluctant to put a terrorist tag on the MILF, who have been fighting for a separate Muslim homeland, for fear it may disrupt sporadic peace talks with the rebels.
But after a spate of bombings and raids left more than 200 civilians and security forces dead this year, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned the rebels that “time was running out” for them to prove they really want peace and to distance themselves from foreign terrorists.
“The government is nearing a decision point on whether to declare the MILF a terrorist organization, and to take the necessary operational and diplomatic measures to strengthen this prospective policy,” Arroyo said in a statement Tuesday.
She said the decision will be made after foreign ministers from the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference meet in Tehran later this month. The ministers are expected to discuss the situation in the southern Philippines, where minority Muslim rebels have long been fighting for autonomy in this predominantly Christian nation.
According to Datu Zamzamin Ampatuan, head of the Office of Muslim Affairs, members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) is considering abandoning its efforts to broker peace between the government and the MILF because they are embarassed by the group’s attacks on civilians.
The attacks apparently occurred when representatives of the OIC’s Committee of the Eight were in Mindanao to look into the implementation of the 1996 peace agreement that it had helped forge between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front.
Because of this embarrassment, Ampatuan said, OIC member-countries such as Malaysia were thinking of pulling out of the peace efforts. “What would you do if you were Malaysia?” he said.
Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Rajak had earlier urged the MILF to abandon its extreme stance and to wage a jihad “against poverty, not against Christians.”
Other Muslim leaders expressed the belief that President Gloria Arroyo’s earlier move to cancel the peace talks with the MILF was not a “unilateral decision.”
They said Malaysia could have wanted to withdraw its offer to host the peace talks because of the MILF offensives.
Malaysian ambassador Mohamed Taufik said time was running out for the MILF to seriously consider how it wants to be regarded by the Philippines and Muslim countries.
The MILF has denied involvement in Saturday’s bombing which killed 10 and injured 40 near a market in Koronadal Monday. But they say they have the right to defend themselves against a military offensive that drove them from a major camp in February.
US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone said that if the MILF is a lawful group working for the legitimate interests of its people, it will be easier for the Philippine and foreign governments to deal with it.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said the group is unfazed by the threat. This is nothing but part of the pressure being applied by the government for the MILF to abandon its quest for a separate government in Mindanao and instead settle down for autonomy,” he said.
Kabalu said President Arroyo has no justification in asking the United States to include the MILF in its “terror” list because “the MILF is not an enemy to the USA, and that it never hurt much more kill any single American ever since its existence.”
No one could stop the Arroyo administration from doing what it wants but the MILF is a legitimate revolutionary organization fighting for a just cause, he said.
Apart from being a legitimate revolutionary organization, the MILF has a mass base support and many of the professionals are with the movement, he said.
Kabalu further noted that the MILF is talking peace and has signed number of peace agreements with the government and it is recognized by the international community, having been a signatory to the Geneva International Convention banning the use of land mines and storage of other explosive. The MILF signed as non-actor state.
“Where now is the government’s basis in classifying the MILF as terrorist organization,” he wondered.
