The Organization of Islamic Cooperation criticized Moro National Liberation Front founding chairman Nur Misuari for masterminding a three-week hostage siege in Zamboanga City in September. The siege left more than 200 people dead and displaced some 120,000 people.A high-level diplomat who attended the recently concluded meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Guinea, said OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu called for a closed-door meeting to discuss the Zamboanga attack.
"Secretary General Ihsanoglu said Misuari made a 'wrong move' when he resorted to violence in trying to assert his cause," the source said in an e-mail interview.
The OIC also adopted a resolution saying the loss of innocent lives and property during the MNLF attack was "deplorable". The resolution also "called upon member states and Islamic relief organizations to help generously in the efforts of relief and reconstruction operation to allow the quick return of the many thousand displaced people to their homes and to compensate the victims."
The organization has yet to comment on the petition of other MNLF groups who want to have Misuari replaced as the sole representative of the Bangsamoro people before the OIC.
The OIC earlier expressed its full support for the peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front even as it called for an "integration" of the MILF and MNLF peace efforts.