COTABATO CITY, Philippines, 18 May 2003 — A Filipino Muslim leader has accused an Indonesian diplomat of distorting reports of a multinational committee monitoring the implementation of the peace agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
Michael O. Mastura said Yudhiranto Sugadi, Indonesia’s chargé d’affaires in Manila, manipulated the findings of the Organization of Islamic Conference’s (OIC) Committee of the Eight to favor Manila’s position in relation to the OIC-Foreign Ministers Conference scheduled Tehran, Iran on May 27-30.
Mastura, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) peace panel, attributed his charges to unnamed “reliable sources.”
The OIC’s Committee of the Eight is currently in Mindanao also to look into the status and welfare of Filipino Muslims, or Moros. Mastura said Sugadi cannot effectively perform the role of a “fair and objective mediator” as he is a Christian Ambonese “whose tendency is to side with the Philippine government, which is also being run by Christians.”
He said the committee’s report would make it appear that the Philippine government has satisfactorily complied with its obligations in the peace agreement of Sept. 2, 1996.
Mastura also claimed that the report recommends the exclusion of the Mindanao problem, having been already settled with the supposed implementation of the peace accord. Such a recommendation would be far from the truth, he said, because the situation in Mindanao has worsened since the signing of the agreement, “a manifestation that the accord does not respond to the root cause of the Bangsamoro people’s problem.”
Mastura further claimed that the Committee of the Eight is set to recommend the granting of an observer status to the Philippine government, a seat earlier enjoyed by the MNLF.
“All these were made possible through Sugadi’s maneuvering and manipulations,” Mastura noted.
