'Political will' needed for RP-Moro peace talks

'Political will' needed for RP-Moro peace talks

MANILA (AFP): Peace talks between the Philippines and Moslem guerrillas in the south are making substantial headway but "political will" would be required for any political settlement to work, an Indonesian government observer said yesterday.

Hassan Wirajuda, representing the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) observer team in the ongoing negotiations in the southern city of Davao, was quoted by the official Philippine News Agency as saying the signs were "encouraging."

"Substantial progress has been made" since Jakarta hosted the launching of the talks in 1992, Wirajuda said. "But political will would be required from both sides to translate sincerity into lasting peace."

He said four "difficult" issues have taken center stage in the current round of talks -- the establishment of provisional government, a demand by the rebel Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to set up a regional security force, economic concerns, and the introduction of Moslem laws.

The two sides have publicly disagreed on the form, powers and geographic coverage of an autonomous government that would be put in place in Mindanao and other southern islands, where the Moslem minority waged a bloody separatist uprising in the early 1970s.

MNLF chairman Nur Misuari is pressing for a "provisional government" giving his group control over 13 provinces and nine cities -- an area that spans most of the country's south.

Manila has said any such government would first have to be created through a plebiscite. The country's five million Moslems make up a large majority in the southern islands, which have a combined population of about 18 million.