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.