MILF starts to doubt govt sincerity on peace talks

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is beginning to doubt the government's sincerity on the peace process because of the continued detention of a top MILF official arrested in September. MILF secretariat chairman Muhammad Ameen also contested the defense of government peace panel head Marvic Leonen about the continued detention of Eduard Guerra. "The government including its negotiators can argue and engage in technicalities to justify the arrest but in the end they would expose that the real policy of government in Mindanao is not the ‘primacy of the peace process’ but to crush the MILF through counter-insurgency measures, including the arrests of its top officials," Ameen said on the MILF website on Wednesday. Ameen said Guerra's arrest was a "grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and the spirit of the peace process." "His arrest was affront to the ceasefire committee and other ceasefire mechanisms of the GRP – MILF Peace Process," he added. More seriously, he said it "puts into doubt the sincerity of the Aquino administration and exposes its own so-called policy of the primacy of the peace process as empty words." Leonen's defense Ameen cited reports quoting Leonen's denial that the government violated its agreements with the rebels. According to Leonen, unless a suspect was directly involved in negotiations he could not be exempted from prosecution and arrest. Leonen said Guerra was arrested on the basis of a court warrant issued on Sept. 1, 2010 and Guerra's name was never submitted as a direct negotiator of the MILF. However, Ameen said Guerra was a member of the MILF Technical Committee during the peace negotiations in Tripoli, Libya in June 2001 and also in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2002 and 2003. Safety and security guarantee Ameen maintained the arrest runs counter to an agreement that provides "safety and security guarantee" to MILF members who are directly involved in the peace process. He said the Agreement on Safety and Security Guarantees mandates the government to extend safety and security guarantee to MILF members "who are directly and principally involved in the GRP-MILF Peace Talks." Guerra was about to leave for Geneva, Switzerland to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council Meeting on September 27 when police arrested him at the Davao International Airport on September 22. Guerra was one of the two-man delegation of the MILF during the Organization of Islamic Conference Minorities’ Conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from April 18 to 19, 2009. He was also one of the members of the three-man MILF delegation to the Conference of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan from May 1 to 20, 2010. Until his arrest, Guerra headed the MILF's Foreign Affairs Committee. Baseless charges The MILF leadership also branded the charges attached in the arrest warrant of Guerra as totally false, baseless and ill-intended. “Brother Eduard has nothing to do with the case imputed on him, he is innocent," Ameen said. “We believed that Eduard had told his captors of his being a top leader of the MILF and that he was going to attend meeting of the UNHRC. But why still effected the arrest instead of referring the case to the peace process mechanisms, particularly with the government and MILF ceasefire committees?" he asked. “As member of the MILF central committee, which is the principal of the MILF peace panel and the ceasefire committee, Eduard is covered by this guarantee. How can our negotiating panel be confident about the talks when their principals are being arrested?" Ameen added. Ameen said the peace panel and the ceasefire committee are directly involved in the peace negotiations. “Even arrest involving plain members of the MILF constitute violation of the ceasefire accord, then how much more for the case of arrest against Brother Eduard who is a member of the MILF Central Committee and the principal of the MILF peace panel and ceasefire committee," he stressed. Arrest of another MILF member Meanwhile, the MILF questioned as well the arrest of Hadi Abdul at Sitio Gadung, Barangay Pagatin, Datu Salibo, Maguindanao on September 13. The MILF said Abdul had worked with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines(GRP)–MILF Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Post (JCMP) which serves as local ceasefire mechanism under the supervision of the GRP and MILF Ceasefire Committee. –VVP, GMANews.TV