Philippines and Moro talks formally open

Philippines and Moro talks formally open

DAVAO, Philippines (Agencies): Peace talks with Moro rebels formally opened in this southern city late yesterday, delayed by backroom negotiations to solve remaining problems.

Most of the day was taken up with trying to resolve a dispute over demands by the Moslem insurgent group, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), for the setting up of a powerful police force that would give teeth to a transitional government leading to an Islamic autonomous region.

MNLF chairman Nur Misuari said that a regional security force to police the area must be set up to enable the transitional government to enforce law and order and maintain the peace needed for economic development.

Government negotiators said Misuari wanted the force to be directly under the council's command, while Manila wants it to remain under the Philippine National Police.

Misuari also hinted he was agreeable to a government compromise formula that would resolve another problem, whether the issue of an autonomous region would be put to a vote.

This compromise would involve the setting up of a transitional mechanism called the "Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development" that would govern parts of the southern Philippines for three years.

This would allow Misuari to allay the fears of the area's large Christian majority that a Moslem autonomous region would discriminate against them.

The negotiations will resume today, with members of both panels making themselves available for tomorrow if more issues need to be resolved.

Misuari also said he was ready to make peace with the government but warned any stop-gap solution to the southern Philippine rebellion would only breed a new war.

"I believe there is a very big chance that we can conclude this year," Misuari told a news conference in a cramped room of the Davao Insular Century Hotel on Thursday night.

"To me, there is no better opportunity than now to put the final touches to our agreement."

But he warned that the MNLF, the main insurgent group fighting for Moslem self-rule in the southern islands, would not accept a stop-gap solution to the massive problems of poverty and injustice that drove Moslems to revolt.

"If all what we could do is come up with a stop-gap solution, I don't know whether what we are going to sow is permanent peace in the end or it would be just sowing another seed for another round of war," he said.

The so-called Southern Philippine Council for Peace and Development that Manila is offering to establish would oversee development efforts in a proposed autonomous region covering at least 13 southern provinces and nine cities.

Once the council is formed, Moro guerrillas will be integrated into the Philippine armed forces.