MILF not giving up on Kato

MILF not giving up on Kato
28-Apr-11, 4:41 PM | Ria Rose Uro and Romy Elusfa, special to InterAksyon.com
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ILIGAN CITY, Philippines - (UPDATE) Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) admitted that efforts to win back Ustadz Amiril Umra Kato “are still wanting” but vowed that they would continue to convince the breakaway field commander to return.

“We are not giving up,” said chief MILF peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal MILF in his opening statement during the 21st exploratory talks with government in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Government had earlier expressed “serious concern” following reports that Kato had broken ranks and formed his own armed group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

Kato used to lead the MILF command operating around the Liguasan Marsh in Maguindanao and North Cotabato.

He was one of three field commanders accused of atrocities against civilians during the renewed fighting with government forces in 2008 that followed the aborted signing of a landmark Bangsamoro homeland deal.

Iqbal assured government that Kato “has not yet burned his bridges with the MILF” and asked that they be given a chance to resolve the problem.

He also said Kato assured them “he will stay within the fold of the MILF no matter what happens.”

“Kato has said that he will not create trouble against the peace process and the ceasefire. He also pledged to respect the good result of the negotiation,” Iqbal stressed.

On Thursday, a post on the MILF’s official website revealed the various efforts undertaken by the rebel leadership to have Kato “return to the fold of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) without delay.”

The BIAF is the armed wing of the MILF.

The post also quoted MILF vice chairman Ghazali Jaafar as saying Kato was not expelled from the MILF but is being branded a renegade because “he willfully defied orders by organizing another army, which is totally unacceptable in any revolutionary organization.”

A former Arabic teacher in madrasahs in Davao Oriental, Kato joined the MILF in 1993.

The MILF said it had sent several emissaries, from rebel officials to Islamic teachers or ulama, to explain its stand to Kato about his actions.

“The MILF Central Committee has exerted efforts to make him realize his mistakes (and) discontinue with his so-called Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters,” Iqbal said.

In a related development, peace activists urged both parties’ peace negotiators to focus their efforts on more substantive issues than the status of Kato.

Bobby Benito, executive director of the Bangsamoro Council for Just Peace, worried that the questions chief government negotiator Marvic Leonen raised about Kato could be “counter- productive.”

Benito, who agreed that the Kato case should be left for the MILF to resolve, explained that Leonen’s questions “could invite more supporters for Kato whose major concern, among a few others, is an endless negotiation.”

“Instead of wasting time and energies on the Kato case, the negotiators should buckle down to work on a comprehensive agreement because if there are disagreements among the ranks of the MILF, the more disagreements are there among government officials and agencies,” Benito stressed.

Aware of an earlier report by an independent organization on the status of Kato, Benito even entertained the possibility that “the government might just be looking for a reason to delay the peace process. I really hope that this is not one of the dilatory tactics that the government has stocked.”

Leonen, referred to an independent report about Kato by the Mindanao Peoples Caucus in his opening statement at the Kuala Lumpur talks.

While Kato, in that report, clarified that his BIFF does not intend to hold separate negotiations with government and will respect the outcome of the GPH-MILF talks, he also warned government against deceiving the Bangsamoro people again, citing the botched Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain as example of alleged government deception.

Rexall Kaalim, head of the grassroots independent ceasefire monitoring group Bantay Ceasefire, urged the peace negotiators to “reiterate an earlier request for the International Monitoring Team to conduct an independent investigation on the alleged coercion and other atrocities being blamed on Kato.”

Kaalim, who was among those who dialogued with the BIFF commander in the hinterlands of Maguindanao on April 16, relayed that “until now, Kato is still waiting for any independent party who would want to investigate on what really happened in August of 2008,” referring to the war that broke after the botching of the MOA-AD and displaced 700,000 civilians.

The MPC report quoted Kato belying allegations that his forces attacked innocent civilians in 2008, saying: “It was the military who attacked us first.”

It also cited the claim of Kato that there was not one investigation done on the allegations hurled against him and three other MILF commanders.

“Kato claims that there has never been an investigation conducted in order to ferret out the truth about this incident. Lahat nalang ibinibintang sa akin,” the MPC report said while emphasizing that the BIFF chief “is open to any impartial investigation so that the truth will come out.