Moslem rebels, RP make progress on tough issues
Moslem rebels, RP make progress on tough issues
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (Reuter): Moslem rebel chief Nur Misuari said yesterday he and government negotiators were making good progress in tackling tough issues standing in the way of a peace accord in the southern Philippines.
"We are gaining momentum and I think we are becoming even much more upbeat in our work," Misuari said in an interview during a break in the three-day talks in Zamboanga.
"We are still dealing on this, but somehow we are moving inch by inch. There are many contentious issues."
The talks began at the city's Royal Orchid Hotel on Sunday after Misuari arrived the day before with a force of 115 men from his Moro National Liberation front (MNLF).
The 52-year-old guerrilla leader, who normally lives in Saudi Arabia, arrived in Mindanao island from the Malaysian state of Sabah via his MNLF stronghold in Jolo island.
The talks, the fourth meeting of a joint rebel-government committee created last year to settle the two decade Moslem insurgency in Mindanao, are focused on solving differences over merging MNLF forces with the military and police, and creating an autonomous Moslem government in the south.
They are aimed at paving the way for the third round of formal talks in Jakarta in June.
The MNLF and government forces have maintained a cease-fire for more than a year, but smaller Moslem groups, particularly the Abu Sayyaf, have continued to fight for an Islamic state in the south where most Filipino Moslems live.
Abu Sayyaf is a Moslem fundamentalist group made up of young radicals that broke away from the MNLF, but Misuari insisted he had no control over them.
"Abu Sayyaf is an entirely different entity. They operate on their own. They follow their own policies."
President Fidel Ramos last week declared the small southern island of Basilan a calamity area because of the strife caused by fighting between the government and Abu Sayyaf fighters who use its forested hills as a stronghold.
The government struck an accord on Sunday with another Moslem secessionist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in North Cotabato province.
The accord is designed to end fighting at an irrigation project in Mindanao being carried out by a South Korean firm.