7 April 2009

The Taliban now holds a permanent presence in 72% of Afghanistan, up from 54% a year ago. Taliban forces have advanced from their southern heartlands, where they are now the de facto governing power in a number of towns and villages, to Afghanistan’s western and north-western provinces, as well as provinces north of Kabul. Within a year, the Taliban's permanent presence in the country has increased by a startling 18%. Three out of the four main highways into Kabul are now compromised by Taliban activity. The capital city has plummeted to minimum levels of control, with the Taliban and other criminal elements infiltrating the city at will.

American invader army terrorism in Pakistan takes 14 more lives Fourteen innocent people were martyred, when American drone fired two missiles at a house of local Tariq Khan in Data Khel. Three women and four children were also reportedly martyred in the attack.

MILF: We negotiated MOA-AD ‘fair and square’ “It is unfair and highly ridiculous to say that the Malaysian facilitator ‘is blatantly pro-MILF’. This is also an insult to the MILF that it can be dictated on.” Atty. Lanang Ali, a senior member of the MILF Peace Panel, was reacting to report, citing “highly placed sources”, accusing the Malaysian facilitator as “biased to the MILF”. The report was carried by the Manila Times in a news article bylined by Ellen Tordesillas Friday, April 3. “It is absolutely untrue and fabrication that Datuk Othman bin Abdul Razak, the facilitator of the GRP-MILF Peace Talks, was the one who advised the MILF peace Panel ‘to demand a 95-5 sharing of profit from exploitation of natural resources under their proposed territory’”, Ali clarified.

“We have never adopted a 95% share of this profit, never in our mind; that is against good negotiation strategy,” he said further, recalling that the starting position of the government on this issue is 70-30, while the original position of the MILF was 85-15, never 90-10 or 95-5. He stressed that whatever is the final text of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) was the result of “fair and square deal” across the negotiating table over an extended period of three years and eight months. He paid tribute to his counterparts from the government from Secretary Silvestre Afable to Secretary Rodolfo Garcia as good negotiators, who knew what they want and how to get it.

“Do you think they are not equal to us? If the sources think otherwise, they are unjust to their co-workers in government,” Ali explained. The final version of the agreement provided for a 75-25 sharing of profits. The source also said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, the new head of the Philippine negotiating panel, has asked for Datuk Othman’s replacement. Also National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzalez had also earlier asked him replaced.

Malaysia has rejected both requests. Sources said Seguis lodged his request when he paid a courtesy call on Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim and Malaysian Foreign Affairs Secretary-General Tan Sri Rastam Mohd Issa on January 28. Malaysia has been brokering the talks between the Philippine government and the separatist MILF since 2001 when President Gloria Arroyo asked for Malaysia’s help in ending the 11-year conflict that has killed more than 120,000 and displaced more than two million people in the Mindanao.