Arroyo welcomes Indonesia's support for peace process
Arroyo welcomes Indonesia's support for peace process
Teresa Cerojano, Associated Press, Manila
The Philippines on Thursday welcomed "snowballing international support" for its peace process with Muslim separatists, especially from Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said "the confluence of favorable global, regional and domestic conditions" has boosted peace prospects with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has been waging almost three decades of rebellion in the southern Philippines.
On Wednesday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda congratulated the Philippines for its cease-fire agreement with the MILF and offered Jakarta's full support for the peace process, Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said.
British Minister of State Mike O'Brien also expressed his country's support for the peace process, Ople said.
Ople met Wirayuda and O'Brien on the sidelines of an Asia- Europe foreign ministers' meeting on the Indonesian island resort of Bali.
"I am glad to acknowledge the snowballing international support for the peace process, especially from Indonesia - the largest Muslim nation in the world," Arroyo said in a statement.
"It is important that the prospective negotiations are secured by a strong international consensus that will lend the necessary impetus to peace and development programs on the ground," she added.
Malaysia is the chief peace broker between the government and the MILF, but Indonesia played a key role in the 1996 peace agreement with a mainstream Muslim separatist movement, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
"I told Minister Wirayuda that our current success in our peace process with the MILF finds inspiration from the success of the peace process with the MNLF, wherein the Indonesian government had played a crucial role," Ople said in a statement.
Eduardo Ermita, the chief government negotiator with the MILF, said on Wednesday that peace talks could resume within a week in Kuala Lumpur.
In his bilateral talks with different foreign ministers, Ople said he emphasized that while the government is committed to bringing about peace in Mindanao -- the southern Philippine island where the MILF is based -- it could not be at the expense of territorial rights and sovereignty.
"The framework of peace still hinges on the MILF's renunciation of armed resistance to the government," he said.