Manila says peace talks with rebels must continue
Manila says peace talks with rebels must continue
MANILA (AFP): Clashes between the army and Moslem rebels in
the southern Philippines must not derail peace talks this month
between the government and separatist leaders, Defense Secretary
Renato de Villa said yesterday.
De Villa said in a radio interview that two years of
negotiations on how to establish a Moslem autonomous region in
southern Mindanao island, home to the Islamic minority in the
largely Roman Catholic nation, must proceed.
The third formal round of talks between Manila and the Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) are to be held in Jakarta from
Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 in an effort to end more than 20 years of
strife on Mindanao.
The MNLF staged a violent campaign for a separate Islamic
state during the early 1970s that left more than 50,000 people
dead.
But the negotiations, sponsored by the Organization of the
Islamic Conference, appeared threatened when the MNLF accused
government troops of encroaching on their territory as they
pursued 50 Moslem gunmen who took two hostages last week in
southern island of Basilan.
At least five persons, including three MNLF regulars, were
killed when two army battalions pounded their camp in Tuburan
town. De Villa said the gunmen could be bandits or members of the
extremist Abu Sayyaf group.
The MNLF charged that troops violated a cease-fire signed in
1993 to coincide with the autonomy talks.
"This has always happened," De Villa said in a radio
interview, referring to previous incidents in which bandits and
other armed Moslem groups sought refuge in MNLF camps.
"This is a gray area (under the cease-fire) because while we
want to recover the hostages and while we must relentlessly
pursue the perpetrators of this kidnapping, every now and then we
get into the problem of confrontation on the ground," he added.
But he said that "first of all we need to continue the peace
talks and our panel and the panel of the MNLF are ready."
He clarified that the Jakarta meeting will not be the final
round if both sides fail to reach an agreement. Government
negotiators earlier said they hoped the Jakarta talks would be
the third and final round, leading to a peace accord.
De Villa said the talks would focus on resolving "contentious
issues," including the holding of a plebiscite to determine the
area of autonomy and creation of a regional security force that
would group MNLF fighters with their former enemies.
MNLF chairman Nur Misuari has insisted that Manila grant
autonomy for 13 provinces in the south to comprise a Moslem
autonomous region as provided for in a 1976 agreement brokered by
Libya that formally ended the MNLF's separatist bid.
But government negotiators want to hold a plebiscite to ask
people if they want to be part of such a region under the MNLF.
Most residents in these provinces are Christians and Misuari
fears they would reject a Moslem region.
The two sides have reached agreement on minor issues, such as
the application of the Islamic shariah law to Moslem residents of
the proposed region.