MILF, Manila sign details of peace pact<\/p>\n
Agencies, Seri Kembangan<\/p>\n
Philippine government negotiators and Moro guerrilla leaders
\nsigned an agreement in Seri Kembangan, Malaysia on Thursday aimed
\nat safeguarding a cease-fire threatened by weeks of renewed
\nhostilities in the country's restive south.<\/p>\n
The pact, which details the functions and powers of joint
\nmonitoring teams, was signed minutes after the Philippines
\ngovernment and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) began
\nfresh talks on ending three decades of separatist violence in
\nMindanao province.<\/p>\n
Jesus Dureza, the chief government negotiator, told reporters
\nthat the accord empowers the monitoring teams to take \"pro-active
\naction\" to prevent further violations of a truce reached with the
\nMILF two months ago.<\/p>\n
According to documents signed on Thursday, Manila and the MILF
\nwill each contribute an equal number of members to a committee to
\nsupervise the cessation of hostilities, and to smaller localized
\nmonitoring teams. These groups will start their work once the
\nnegotiators return to the Philippines this weekend.<\/p>\n
At the opening ceremony of the peace talks on Thursday, Murad
\nEbrahim, the MILF chief negotiator, urged Malaysia, Indonesia and
\nLibya to send an independent monitoring team to the southern
\nPhilippines on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic
\nConference (OIC).<\/p>\n
\"With the alarming developments now going on in other parts of
\nthe world, particularly the U.S.-led war on Afghanistan, our
\nmission and task to arrive at a comprehensive political
\nresolution of the conflict in the (southern Philippines) should
\nnow indeed be the primordial concern of all parties,\" Ebrahim
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The OIC should immediately send a cease-fire monitoring team
\nto the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, the MILF said on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
\"Please urgently put a monitoring team on the ground. OIC's
\npresence will ensure the success of the peace talks,\" Ebrahim
\ntold AFP.<\/p>\n
Dureza said both sides have accused each other of repeatedly
\nviolating the cease-fire, but that the truce was generally still
\nholding.<\/p>\n
\"There were some events that happened ... there has been no
\nescalation of these events and so we look forward to further
\nstrengthening the cease-fire,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The current round of talks, being held on the Kuala Lumpur's
\noutskirts, now turns to the rehabilitation and development of the
\nimpoverished southern Philippines, and the possible return of
\nMuslim ancestral territorial rights.<\/p>\n
Both sides have expressed optimism that an agreement on these
\naspects could be reached by Saturday, when the talks are expected
\nto finish.<\/p>\n
The government and the MILF signed a cease-fire accord in
\nMalaysia two months ago in an effort to end the conflict, which
\nhas killed more than 120,000 people.<\/p>\n
The talks are unconnected with the hunt for another Moro
\nguerrilla group in the southern Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf,
\nwhich has links with Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile accused of
\nplotting the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.<\/p>\n
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ruled out peace talks
\nwith the Abu Sayyaf, which claims to want independent state but
\nhas been dismissed by the government as mere bandits. The group,
\nthought to number 1,000 fighters, has kidnapped dozens of
\nforeigners and Filipinos in recent years and raised millions of
\ndollars in ransom.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Vice President Teifisto Guingona said in Shanghai,
\nChina on Thursday that the Philippines could eliminate the threat
\nfrom Abu Sayyaf rebels within the next three to six months.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Reuters, Guingona also said Manila wanted
\ntechnical help to fight Abu Sayyaf rebels but wanted to finish
\nthe job itself to avoid escalating tensions in an already tense
\nregion.<\/p>",
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