MANILA: Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Founding Chairman Nur Misuari has reunited with his family in a Middle East country and is preparing to attend the 40th session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) next month in Conakry, Guinea.
A source said yesterday as a permanent observer in the OIC, Misuari is expected to report to the 57 member countries on the outbreak of hostilities in Zamboanga City and the status of the tripartite review of the 1996 peace agreement with the government. It was not revealed which country in the Middle East Misuari and his family are now staying in.
Misuari reportedly used an ancient maritime route to get out of Mindanao and landed on Bolongan coast in Southern Sulawesi, Indonesia, before the regional trial court of Zamboanga City could issue an arrest warrant. The usual sea route is from Sulu to Sandakan or Lahad Datu in Sabah, Malaysia, but Misuari’s group reportedly used the Bolongan route to avoid the Malaysian navy.
Asylum boat stand-off ends
JAKARTA: Australia said yesterday it will take a boatload of asylum-seekers at the centre of a high-seas stand-off with Indonesia to its Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island. Australia had requested Indonesia to take the group of about 60 people picked up by an Australian vessel south of Java on Thursday but Indonesia had refused. Officials said the group would be transferred to camps on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island or the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru, in line with Australia’s hardline policy on asylum-seekers arriving by boat.
HK visa-free access to end
MANILA: Hong Kong MPs passed a non-binding motion by People Power, calling on the government to impose sanctions on the Philippines in connection with the 2010 Manila hostage killings, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. They also passed an amendment to scrap visa-free access for Filipino, the newspaper said.
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