Monitors to visit MILF camps

Monitors to visit MILF camps

PHILIPPINES: Malaysian cease-fire monitors will inspect 10 bases of the largest Islamic separatist group in the southern Philippines in coming days ahead of the resumption of formal peace talks with the government in April.

Malaysia has been hosting negotiations to end more than three decades of a Muslim secessionist rebellion in which more than 120,000 people have been killed in the southern Philippines.

The observers will inspect bases on the island of Mindanao and hold nine days of consultations with officials from the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), military officials and a rebel spokesman said on Friday.

"We are very sure that the Malaysian monitors are coming this month," said Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, the military's vice chief of staff. "But the arrival date has not been fixed."

The MILF spokesman said the observers would arrive on March 14.

The latest in a series of cease-fires was agreed to in June, but on Wednesday government forces shelled rebel positions in one of the areas due for inspection by the Malaysian monitors. -- Reuters