Peace agreement grants Muslims more autonomy

Mindanao, southern Philippines

Twenty years of war between Muslims and Christians in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, which has cost 120,000 lives, was declared at an end by Philippine President Fidel Ramos and Muslim guerrilla chief Nur Misuari, who embraced at a peace signing ceremony on Aug. 19.

However, the Christian population harbours fears that Muslims may be receiving too much power through the accord, and may use this power to impose Islamic law upon them later.

Mindanao is the second largest and richest island in the Philippine archipelago. It was entirely Muslim until the 1930s, when Christians began to drift into the area. The island was annexed by the Philippine government in 1945 and Muslims--feeling swamped by the numbers of Christians immigrating into their homeland--began fight for autonomy during the mid-1960s. In the early 1970s, the Moro National Liberation Front was formed under the leadership of a soft-spoken former Maoist turned devout Muslim, Nur Misuari. With an army of 30,000 soldiers, their tactics were brutal and bloody.

Yet by 1996, 80 percent of Mindanao's 20 million people were Christian, mostly Roman Catholics, although the largest Protestant denomination in the area--the Christian and Missionary Alliance--has reported rapid growth also. Mindanao has 23 provinces, and the peace accord allows Misuari to become the governor of four very poor and predominantly Muslim province, called the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (AARM).

In addition, Misuari is also named chair of a transitional Southern Philippine Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD), a two-year council with Christian representation. The council will rule a further 14 provinces and ten cities in the south of the Island, which will then be given the option by plebiscite to join the new Muslim Mindanao (the AARM).

Christian groups on the whole have reacted negatively to the agreement. The Catholic Bishops Conference called it unconstitutional, and local Catholic leaders in Mindanao threatened to arm themselves. An area mission worker for Open Doors says that some rich landlords who are nominal Christians already have private armies and are prepared to defend their land. The region has seen sporadic persecution over the years--intimidation, kidnappings, even assassinations of some prominent pastors who have tried to evangelize Muslims.

Suspicions between the two communities remains high, despite Misuari's assurance that "we are guided by the Holy Koran: let there be no compulsion in religion." Southern Mindanao over the next two years will likely remain an area of great tension.

Compass Direct

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