TRIPOLI — Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding Chairman Prof. Nur Misuari is continuing the chase for the elusive implementation of the 1976 Tripoli Agreement as embodied in the 1996 Jakarta Agreement between the Philippine Government and the MNLF, saying 34 years is already a long wait for "a simple autonomy."

Leading an MNLF delegation here for the signing on April 20 of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government, Misuari wondered no end why this could not be implemented.

The MNLF chieftain spoke extemporaneously — after reading a speech — for about 30 minutes — he himself prepared at the opening of the MOU signing program held at the   highly-restricted Quliatul Ad'Da'wah Al-Islamie (Islamic Call College), about 30 minutes from downtown Tripoli.

His audience included Libyan officials such as former Ambassador to the Philippines Salem Muhammad Adam; Indonesia's Ambassador Rezlan I. Jenie, chairman of the tripartite meeting; Presidential Peace Adviser Annabelle T. Abaya and other members of her delegation; diplomats from members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference-Peace Committee for Southern Philippines (OIC-PCSP); and MNLF senior leaders Commissioner Hatimil Hassan of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF), Dr. Parouk S. Hussin, ex-governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), and Abdul Sahrin, among other MNLF leaders. ICC is where Abu Sayyaf founder Ustadhz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani studied.

Today, there are 43 Moro students, four of them women, joining hundreds of other foreign students taking various courses for free.