MILF chief negotiator: New proposal “good for the eye to see”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / November 24) – The Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) has described the government’s new proposal on the issue
of territory in their peace negotiations as “good for the eye to see”.

The MILF Internet website quoted the Front’s chief negotiator,
Mohagher Iqbal, as saying that the “right to self-determination” was
the “main sweetener” in the latest proposal.

Iqbal said this was a turnaround from the government’s objection to
the using the phrase in the course of their negotiations that started
in 1997. The MILF has always negotiated using the “right to self
determination” framework but he said the government refused.

He said the MILF proposed to use the words “freedom” and “right to
self-determination” in the negotiations for the Tripoli Agreement of
2001, “but the government agreed only on the first”.

Iqbal stressed that the MILF was “forward-looking” in negotiating
solutions to the “Moro problem” and “Mindanao conflict”.

He said that the new proposal has to be “examined meticulously” and
said that MILF peace panel held a “crucial” meeting Thursday at the
panel’s office in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat town, which now belongs to
the newly-created province of Sharif Kabungsuan. Read full story here.