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.