The Philippines asked Malaysia Thursday to deny asylum to Nur Misuari and prevent the detained Muslim rebel chieftain from seeking refuge in other countries.
Misuari, 60, fled to the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah last weekend and was held for illegal entry after his men mounted a failed revolt in the southern Philippines that claimed some 141 lives.
"We've made our position quite clear -- that Misuari is a fugitive, he's facing charges here and cannot be given political asylum," Philippines President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters.
"We would not want any country to give him political asylum," he said, directing his comments in particular at the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
Over the past 10 days, the army quelled successive uprisings by Misuari followers in Jolo island and in the port city of Zamboanga as the national government held elections to pick his successor as governor of a Muslim self-rule area in the south.
Misuari, who ended a 24-year separatist rebellion in 1996, faces rebellion charges in a Jolo court for allegedly inciting the uprising, a crime punishable by a 20-year prison term.
Malaysia says it will deport Misuari "at an appropriate time", but is studying an Arroyo request that it charge the Muslim leader for illegal entry and detain him a while longer.
Tiglao said Kuala Lumpur has assured Manila "that they would not allow Misuari to be taken in by a third country" even though he said there were reports that certain countries were "more than prepared to take him in."
Misuari spent years in exile, principally in Libya and Saudi Arabia, after an OIC-brokered truce stalled his Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebellion in the southern third of the largely Roman Catholic Philippine archipelago in 1976.
He returned to the Philippines in 1987 to negotiate a political settlement with Manila. He later settled for limited political autonomy in Muslim-populated areas of the south.
In Kuala Lumpur, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Thursday that Malaysia would deport the rebel leader as soon as Manila was ready to receive him.
"We don't want to keep him for too long," the official Bernama news agency quoted Abdullah as saying.
On Wednesday, Defense Minister Najib Razak said Kuala Lumpur would not allow Misuari to leave and seek political asylum elsewhere even if there are countries willing to accept him.
In Manila, Tiglao stressed Thursday that "there's no quid pro quo" between the two countries over the Misuari case.
"It will be more convenient if he is kept in Malaysia, which is obviously an ally within ASEAN," he added, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Tiglao stressed that Manila was ready to arrest Misuari "if the Malaysians think that he would have to be deported as soon as possible."
He expressed confidence that the security situation in the Muslim heartland in the southern Philippines should stabilize soon to allow the judicial process to take its due course.
Despite the revolt, the southern Philippines held peaceful elections last Monday to choose Misuari's replacement. Officials said the winner should be proclaimed next week – Manila (AFP)
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