Secret meeting held between?MILF & US a month before Ampatuan/Maguindanao Massacre?
Top level meeting between MILF & US held in Maguindanao one month before the massacre excluded Arroyo's administration
Details of a secret meeting held in?October 2009 between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and senior officials of the US Embassy in Manila have left MILF speechless.
WikiLeaks, the whistle blowing website normally aims to?expose government and big business wrong-doing.
This time it is the Moro's who have been caught off guard and unable to make a comment on the revelations that were posted this morning on the WikiLeaks website.
The expose is in the form of a cable?sent from the US Embassy in Manila to the State Dept along with other US Gov't departments and embassies. For a reason which is not explained, the US Embassy in Dublin is included in the limited distribution list, this could possibly be because of the discussions over the kidnapped Fr Sinnott.
The meeting was held at??Camp Darapanan in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao just north of Cotabato City, and headed by the?US Charge d'Affaires Leslie A. Bassett (pictured above left), with?USAID Acting Mission Director Elzadia Washington, Defense Attache Col. Tony Senci , Political Officer Michael Pignatello as back up.
On the MILF side, ?it was a full complement with Chairman Murad Ebrahim (pictured above right), Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Ghadzali Jaafar,??MILF Peace Panel Chairman Mohager Iqbal,??MILF Peace Panel Secretariat Jun Mantawil,??MILF Peace Panel Senior Member Michael Mastura. Backing them up at the meeting were??Central Committee Secretary Muhammed Ameen,??MILF Chair of the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities Toks Ebrahim,??Commander of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces Gordon Sayfrullah,??with other MILF armed forces members from Tawi Tawi, Sulu, Basilan, and Zamboanga in attendance.
Top of the agenda was with Murad Ebrahim asking for more assistance and for the US to join the contact group. Also mentioned was the case of the Irish?priest Father Michael Sinnott who had very recently been kidnapped.
Concerns were also raised about what was seen as a lack of progress by the Arroyo administration in pushing forward with the peace process. No members of the Arroyo government were in attendance at the meeting and it is not known if they were even invited to participate.
What is also interesting is the fact that only one month after this meeting, the Ampatuan/Maguindanao massacre took place.
(On legal advice, the cable shown on the Wikileaks website is not now published here)
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