Agence France-Presse
First Posted 21:41:00 03/13/2008

DAKAR -- Leaders from the world's biggest Muslim forum started a summit here Thursday that was overshadowed by conflicts and new tensions that have stricken member nations.

The 11th Organization of the Islamic Conference summit is meant to concentrate on a campaign against 'Islamophobia' in the West and efforts to reform the group and increase solidarity among its 57 members.

But the event opened as one member, Chad, accused rebels based in another, Sudan, of crossing the border to launch a new offensive.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was preoccupied with a car bomb in Kabul that killed six people, and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas' attention was focused on renewed Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also a key figure at the summit as he confronts tensions with the United States over its nuclear programme.

For President Mamadou Tandja of Niger, the gathering in Dakar was his first chance to leave his country in two years because of an ethnic Tuareg rebellion.

The two day meeting started with Malaysia handing over the presidency of the 57 member organization to Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, host of the summit which was twice postponed because of construction delays.

In a message read at the meeting, Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who cancelled his attendance because of domestic political troubles, called for the OIC to become more involved in efforts to secure "world peace".

But highlighting troubles that have beset its members, Chad accused rebels based in neighbouring Sudan of crossing the border to launch an offensive as its president, Idriss Deby, attended the Dakar meeting.

On the eve of the summit, Wade had sought to bring together Deby and Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir for talks on ending bitter rivalry between the two.

But Beshir failed to turn up at the meeting, at which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was also present. The Senegalese leader said Beshir blamed "a headache" for his absence.

Another meeting was organized for Thursday but there were widespread doubts that any progress would be made between the two, who have made five previous accords but at times come close to war in the past five years.

Chad rebels denied they had launched a new offensive. A rebel spokesman told Agence France-Presse Deby had invented the offensive as an excuse not to sign a peace accord with Beshir.

The French defense ministry in Paris said French military forces deployed in Chad had "not for the moment detected" any rebel columns crossing from Sudan.

Conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, and Somalia have all been key talking points in the buildup to the summit, diverting attention from the OIC leadership's efforts to reform the body and its campaign against 'Islamophobia' -- attacks and threats against Muslims and what it considers insults against the Islamic faith in the West.

Several leaders have called for a major campaign against Islam's negative image in the West, particularly since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The OIC also wants western nations to clamp down harder on what it considers anti-Islamic gestures such as the publication of cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed in Denmark and the looming release of an anti-Islamic film by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

The OIC was created in 1969 and its charter dates from 1972. OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said before the meeting that the summit would be a "turning point" because of the agreement to change its charter.

"The role of OIC as not only representative of these 57 countries, but as the spokesman of the Muslim world, the spokesman of the inspiration of the Islamic Ummah (community), has been increasing and expanding," said Ihsanoglu.

Under pressure from the group's African members, the summit is to relaunch efforts for greater economic cooperation including strengthening an Islamic solidarity fund which aims to raise $10 billion but so far has only $2.6 billion.

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Agence France-PresseFirst Posted 20:43:00 03/11/2008
source: inquirer.net

BUTIG, Philippines -- More than 10,000 armed Moro rebels put on their biggest show of strength since they began talks with the Philippine government in 2003, raising doubts that a peace agreement can be completed this year.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front leadership said Tuesday they doubted a peace deal would be reached this year and blamed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's ongoing political crisis over alleged corruption as the main reason for constant delays in the negotiations.

The "uncertainty of concluding a peace pact with the government" was causing anxiety among the rebel ranks, said MILF chief Murad Ebrahim, flanked by his top military aide Abdul Aziz Mimbantas and political officer Ghazali Jaafar, at the end of a four-day meeting on Mindanao.

At least one faction headed by Hadji Samir wants an end to the talks and for the MILF to pursue its armed struggle for self-determination.

Samir is overall head of internal security within the MILF and as such wields considerable power.

The MILF has been waging a separatist rebellion on the southern island of Mindanao which has claimed 150,000 lives since 1978.

Manila and the MILF signed a ceasefire in 2001 but peace talks have been at a bitter impasse over the past year on disagreement over territories the rebels claim as ancestral lands.

MILF insiders told Agence France-Presse that the MILF central committee was having trouble dealing with internal squabbling over the direction the talks were taking.

"We have been the government's whipping boys all the time, and some people within the MILF do not want that. They believe they are entitled to fight," one senior commander said.

"Right now, the MILF central committee can still keep those with dissenting opinions in line, but there is a sense of nascent radicalization among the ranks," he added

Murad however denied there were any tensions within the rebel leadership saying: "I would like to declare to everyone that the MILF is as solid as ever."

He said the MILF would push for a lasting peace but warned they were also prepared for a longer struggle if a peace deal was not achieved, without giving a time frame.

Murad, 58, is seen by many as a pragmatic rebel leader who wants to see an end to the bloody conflict before he dies.

He told journalists that he doubted an agreement would be signed with the current administration.

"Given the delays in the resumption of peace talks, whether circumstantial or not, this prospect of signing is already suspect," Murad said at Camp Bushra just outside Butig town in central Mindanao where more than 10,000 MILF fighters had gathered.

Field commanders from 20 rebel fronts across Mindanao "reaffirmed a mandate" to continue with the peace process, Murad said but admitted many remained skeptical.

"This renewal of trust is not without the usual question," Murad said.

"Is the government serious in the peace talks?" he said to shouts of "Allah is great" from rebels sweating in their fatigues and carrying high powered weapons.

He said Arroyo's problems stemming from allegations of corruption involving her husband had affected the peace process, with government negotiators at one time pulling out of scheduled talks in Malaysia to help fix her problems.

The MILF leadership still believes that the "peace process is the most viable" way of solving the conflict on the mineral-rich island.

Both sides were to have met last December but it was cancelled over the thorny issue of ancestral domain, or the areas that the MILF says Muslims have historical rights and whose resources they should be allowed to freely control.

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MANILA, Philippines -- She shunned the glitter of the law profession in favor of a life of service to her war-weary province in Mindanao.

Now 36-year-old Baicon Macaraya will be enthroned by chieftains in Lanao del Sur as its "queen" (or as the Bai Labi Ko Shakba) to look after the poor,
and the victims of war that flared up in the region and other neighboring provinces eight years ago.

The enthronement ceremony has been set on March 23 in Ditsaan Ramain town after more than two months of deliberation.

Macaraya herself chose the date because she wanted the rites celebrated during Women's Month, which officially starts Saturday.

Traditionally, leaders or sultans in the province award one leadership title to a woman. According to Macaraya, the selection system for the "crown" is
primarily based on blood lineage and the government position the woman has handled in the past.

In a phone interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) Friday, Macaraya said the appointment was a "transformation of
traditional governance" in her province as she was handpicked based on her service to the community.

Although her forefathers were once sultans, Macaraya (her first name Baicon means princess) has never held any political position nor does she have a
lot of wealth or resources.

"This is also the first time they are enthroning someone who is below 40 years old. I am happy they chose me because of what I did and what I can
still do for the community," she said.

Another road

Macaraya never intended to abandon her law studies in 2000. In fact, she decided to pursue law after finishing her degree in political science
because she wanted to help alleviate the human rights situation of her fellow Muslims.

But a trip to her hometown of Marawi City, one morning in March 2000, opened another road for the promising law student.

Macaraya, mother of three, narrated that she and her husband were on their way to a lower court to file her application for internship when she saw
truckloads of grim-faced mothers and children being brought to a school.

She convinced her husband to pull over and to find out what was happening. She later learned that thousands of families had fled their homes in the
neighboring province of Lanao del Norte because of the war.

Truckloads evacuated

At the time, then President Joseph Estrada had just declared an all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the bandit group Abu
Sayyaf. But Macaraya never realized the gravity of the situation until she saw the truckloads of homeless mothers and children.

"We were caught unaware. I knew that there was a conflict in Mindanao but I never thought it was massive until I saw people arriving in trucks with
nothing except the clothes they were wearing," she said, recounting her painful encounter with evacuees.

Every three days, a fresh batch of displaced families arrived in Marawi City seeking shelter in vacant buildings, gymnasiums and schools.

More evacuees came from the neighboring towns of Lanao del Sur and much later, from Maguindanao.

"I was scared for myself because I knew the armed conflict could escalate anytime to our city. But I pitied the [evacuated] people and I felt that I
was needed so I decided to help," Macaraya said.

Helping displaced families

She and her husband went home and started collecting pots and pans, as well as clothes to give away to displaced families.

Eventually, Macaraya forgot about her internship and became the founding chair of the youth organization, Bangsamoro Youth-Ranao Center for Peace and
Development. She oversaw the daily needs of thousands of evacuees staying in schools.

Her organization tied up with Tabang Mindanao and pioneered the Integration Return and Rehabilitation Program to help displaced families get back on
their feet.

Later, her group handled the reconstruction of about 500 houses, six mosques and five schools destroyed by the fighting in Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

Mothers for Peace

In 2003, she helped launch the advocacy group, Mothers for Peace, to push for an end to the conflict in Mindanao because women and children are the
greatest casualties of war.

Macaraya recalled bringing a bleeding infant to the hospital since the mother had no money to consult a doctor or to buy medicine.

"I was worried about [which hospital] I could take my child who also had a bad cold at that time. Then there was this mother, who had no money, who
couldn't do anything except wait for her son to die," she narrated.

Macaraya is now involved with the United Nations World Food Program, touring schools to distribute rice, to make sure children stay in school and to
address the food security needs of people living in conflict-affected areas.

Lessons from parents

Her parents also taught Macaraya--the youngest in a brood of five-- to be independent and to work hard for their "wants and needs."

She recalled helping her parents sell goods at the barter trade every weekend and whenever she did not have classes so she could earn extra money.

Her compassion for people in need, she also attributes to her parents, who sold cellophane and ice candy at the barter trade center in the 1970s in
Zamboanga City.

One incident Macaraya cannot forget was the night her father returned home from work with a bag of rotten tomatoes he had bought from an old vendor.

"I asked him why he did not buy the good ones. He told me that if he did not buy them, the old man would have stayed longer out on the streets selling
tomatoes," she said.

A good heart

Her mother, on the other hand, believes in simple acts of charity.

Macaraya said her mother would always cook extra food so they could always serve something to an unexpected visitor.

"She would also always eat last to make sure everybody has enough. Those simple things really instilled in us the value of helping others," she said.

"I learned so much from my mother. She always told me a good heart is the best quality of a woman," Macaraya said.

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I am a Maranao, one of 117 ethno-linguistic groups in the Philippines, descended from the unconquered Moro, who fought 400 years of anti-colonial rule; a Muslim, part of the global Ummah, what Bush calls them in “US VERSUS THEM”;  a Filipino, sister to the Christian, also People of the Book.

I live around Lake Lanao , one of the ancient lakes in the world, the second largest in the Philippines . Most of all, I am a woman, a daughter, a wife and a dreamer for peace for I am witness to the pangs of pain, anger, mistrust.
Today, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front ( MILF)  chairman Alhaj Murad is in Butig, Lanao del Sur with hundreds of followers from across the island of Mindanao, in a show of force amidst an uncertain peace talks with government. We in civil society fear war is in the offing if the kinks in the negotiation's talking points on subjecting Muslim-dominated areas to a plebiscite are not resolved. The women will suffer the brunt of government-rebel clashes.
 
Despite this, away from the klieg lights of media, women in Muslim Mindanao and those who migrated up North to escape war, strive to  do their part in peace-building. Often invincible, sidelined , silenced even censored in our patriarchal society, we, women, can only witness how our male leaders amass the wealth of our people without public accountability. And yet these same men are those who speak up for us, on our behalf in asking for funds and power from the outside. They are the same men who buy bullets and keep arms to maintain their position in society.

It is the mess left by power struggles of men that we women have to help resolve. Women help mediate feuds or rido between conflicting families among Muslims, who are an estimated 3 million in the Muslim Mindanao. Some of these rido carry over generations and kill any of the relatives of the enemies anywhere. Women largely remain on the margins of governance, and politics is still seen as  primarily the business of men. Unfortunately, there are still very few women in positions of power. Leadership is not confined to politics – it could be in NGOs, schools, business, dawah (or Islamic propagation) and other powerful socializing institutions.

Young women are also exposed to different political situations, especially in the war-stricken area of Mindanao . Every aspect of adolescent life is affected by war. A lawyer from Davao shared, “The situation in war-ridden Mindanao is even more startling. While some barangays enjoy peace and security others do not. For example, a story has been reported by L. J. Canson of the Development of Peoples Foundation that ‘… at 7:00 p.m. of May 3, 2000 in Barangay Bayanga in Malanog, Maguindanao, a number of houses were hit in a few minutes by the mortar shelling. Seeing their lives endangered as the Marines continued bombing their village, residents fled towards Buldon. During the forced evacuation, Dadria Agaso suffered a miscarriage…. There were reports of rape, sexual harassment and other violent acts against Moro women allegedly perpetrated by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines such as fondling the breasts of Moro women at Dawah evacuation center under the pretext of finding hidden grenades.’ However, these are allegations which could not be verified because women victims , young or old, do not talk because of fear of military reprisals and in Muslim culture, rape and the disclosure of its occurrence are unacceptable.”

Adolescents in these war-stricken areas submit themselves to warfare. They learn how to carry guns and how to shoot with them. They are exposed to the danger of being injured and to the extent being killed in battle. For them, this is the only way to survive. Because of their situation, they have to give up being a child, give up being an adolescent, and give up education. (Older Children, Younger Adults, All Filipinos (unpublished), pp. 13 & 14, Commission on Population, June 2002).

There is, however, increasing awareness of the contributions that women can make in development, which Islam does not prohibit. The first Muslim after the Prophet Muhammad (swt) is a woman - Khadija , a brave businesswoman who stood by Muhammad in the trials of his life.
Today, Muslim women are coming out in the open . One is a  Nobel Prize winner (Shirin Ebadi). Others are activists, professionals, accomplished individuals who are creating ripples of change.  We have a big role as nurturers, peace-makers, community advocates. It is time to stand up and be heard in the realm of leadership.

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