COTABATO
Refugees living in Camp Omar in the north of Moro, who reside in bamboo sheds and live on fruits and rice were examined by health care professionals sent by Philippine government for the first time in 42 years. Philippine government also sent food aid to the camp after the agreement.
The camp was under control of MILF before the agreement.
The main problems in the camp are the lack of clean water and epidemics. Refugees living in the camp call for medicine, electricity and a school.
-The agreement-
As part of the agreement, the new autonomous region in Mindanao will be called Bangsamoro and Muslims would have wide authority. The Muslims of Mindanao hope that the agreement reached would give them new economic, social and political rights by 2016.
The preliminary framework deal -reached after 15 years of negotiations brokered by Malaysia- constitutes a roadmap to a final settlement which would allow for an autonomous region administered by minority Muslims in the south of this predominantly Catholic country.
The agreement was signed in a ceremony on October 15, in Manila's Malacanang Presidential Palace with the participation of President Benigno Aquino III and Liberation Front leader AL Haj Murad Ebrahim. Also present at the ceremony were Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu as well as heads of foreign diplomatic missions including Turkish Ambassadress to Philippines Hatice Pinar Isik.
Reporting by Murat Demirci
