OIC reviews Muslim peace deal in Philippines

[sonz]

A delegation of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) is visiting the Philippines to review the implementation of a 1996 peace accord between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Reuters reported.

The five member OIC delegation and some Manila-based Muslim ambassadors will travel to the southern Philippines to see how Muslims were affected by nearly 40 years of fighting there.

"We are going to see everybody who is involved in this peace process," said Sayed Kassem el-Masry, an Egyptian diplomat and head of the OIC delegation.

El-Masry promised that they would consider complaints from both parties and try to remove all obstacles hindering a full implementation of peace.

Tensions between the MNLF and Manila have held back the peace process in the southern island of Mindanao, which remains one of the country's poorest areas despite rich resources of copper and gold.

The OIC, through the Indonesian government, brokered a peace deal between the Philippines and the MNLF in September 1996.

Jesus Dureza, the Philippines' adviser on the MNLF peace process, said that Manila completed the first phase of the deal, recruiting and training about 10,000 former Muslim fighters as members of the military and the national police.

The OIC recognized the MNLF as the representative of Muslim people in the southern Philippines, granting it observer status in the 57-member Islamic bloc.

The larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the biggest Muslim rebel group in the southern Philippines and Manila, is also trying to reach a separate peace deal with Manila to end a decades-old conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people and hampered development in the region.