ZAMBOANGA CITY, 19 October 2006 — The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) yesterday warned that the peace talks with Manila may be imperiled after police filed criminal charges against its chieftain and two Jemaah Islamiyah militants in connection with recent bomb attacks in the restive Mindanao region.
“This is a very serious development. We are now discussing this issue. This could imperil the peace talks,” Mohager Iqbal, the MILF chief peace negotiator, told Arab News by phone from a rebel base in Mindanao.
Police linked Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the MILF, and some of his commanders in the Oct.10 bombing in Makilala town in North Cotabato province where six people had died and more than two dozen others injured.
A bomb also exploded at a market in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province and in Cotabato City in Maguindanao province, killing several people.
Aside from Murad, police also filed criminal charges against Indonesian JI bombers Dulmatin and Umar Patek, a Pakistani national named Usman Al-Majad, and several MILF rebels.
Chief Superintendent German Doria, the regional police chief for Central Mindanao, said the charges were based on accounts provided by an informant who said the attacks were sanctioned by the MILF.
Security forces initially believed the JI and their local allies, the Abu Sayyaf, carried out the attacks to divert military resources from Jolo island where a massive manhunt is underway for Dulmatin and Patek.
North Cotabato Governor Emmanuel Piñol earlier accused a top MILF commander, Abdul Basit Usman,, as the brains behind the Makilala bombing.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu Kabalu said the charges were designed to break a 2003 truce and peace negotiations between the separatist group and the government.
“We see a third party here out to destroy the image of the MILF,” Eid Kabalu told reporters, adding his group has asked the police to drop charges against Murad to save the negotiations.
Kabalu said Abdul Basit Usman is no longer an MILF member and that the group was cooperating with security forces in hunting him.
“We’re also running after Usman because he’s destroying our name,” he added.
Kabalu later said the military and the MILF were working to have the Murad’s name removed from the list.
“It will be corrected, “ he said, adding that there were major mistakes on the list and some of the MILF suspects named were no longer with the group.
Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza also said he was surprised by the development, and did not believe the MILF was behind the attacks.
“I was really surprised to hear that they included MILF Chairman Murad Ebrahim to the bombing. I have not seen any connection of the MILF leader to the bombing. This development is very sensitive because this can have an effect to our peace efforts in Mindanao,” Dureza said.
The MILF and Manila have been talking for nearly a decade to try and end a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people since the late 1960s but negotiations stalled in May over the size and wealth of a proposed homeland for Muslims in the south. (With input from agencies)
