ZAMBOANGA CITY, 26 July 2003 — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday accused Manila’s chief peace negotiator of sowing intrigues among senior rebel leaders.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said Eduardo Ermita, the government’s peace panel chairman, was trying to create confusion and discontent among MILF leaders by making unnecessary announcements on their behalf.
Ermita earlier told reporters in Manila that Kabalu was ousted as MILF spokesman and replaced by Mohagher Iqbal, the group’s information chief, and that Mushib Buat, a member of the rebel’s negotiating panel, would be the sole spokesman for peace negotiations.
“That’s not true. It is a lie aimed at dividing the leadership of the MILF, but our faith is solid as a rock. Ermita is irresponsible and could be suffering from an advance state of inutility,” Kabalu told Arab News by phone from his hideout in the southern Philippines.
Government people also said that MILF chieftain Salamat Hashim would lead the peace talks, but this was repeatedly and publicly denied by the rebel group.
Peace talks are expected to resume this month in Malaysia, which is brokering the negotiations. The MILF is the country’s largest separatist Muslim rebel group fighting for independence in the southern Philippines.
Down in Basilan, another separatist Muslim rebel leader claimed his group has killed 7 government soldiers in fierce clashes on the island of Pilas.
Ustadz Shariff Julabbi, a former leader of the MILF, said their fighters killed the soldiers in a firefight on Wednesday on Pilas Island, west of Basilan. Three civilians were also killed in the cross-fire, he said.
“Our commanders reported killing seven soldiers, but three Muslim civilians were also slain in the cross-fire,” Julabbi, who now heads the Bangsamoro Mujahideen Alliance (BMA), told the Arab News.
Julabbi said the soldiers raided BMA lairs on Pilas, triggering a firefight. He said the BMA forces, led by Ustadz Bashiri Jailani, of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), clashed with government soldiers. He said there were no casualties on their side.
The military denied Julabbi’s claim, saying, troops clashed with Abu Sayyaf rebels, whose group is tied to al-Qaeda network. “As far as we are concerned only three soldiers were killed, including a army lieutenant. Four rebels — all of them Abu Sayyaf — were also killed in the fighting,” said Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero.
Manila signed a peace deal with the MNLF in September 1996, but many rebels were disgruntled with the accord, saying the government failed to uplift their living standards.
Most of the MNLF fighters have either joined the Abu Sayyaf or the MILF and continued hostilities in the southern Philippines.
The BMA, which claims to be an umbrella organization of Muslim rebel groups in Western Mindanao, was formed last year by Julabbi after he was ousted as MILF spokesman. Julabbi claims to have more than 10,000 fighters, mostly in Jolo and Basilan.
