Rebels move closer to Manila with peace pact

Rebels move closer to Manila with peace pact

DAVAO, Philippines (Reuter): The Philippines and Moro rebels
took a major step on Sunday towards ending a 24-year-old
rebellion and officials hoped a peace deal could be signed as
early as next month.

After three days of talks, Manila and the insurgent Moro
National Liberation Front (MNLF) said they agreed to create a
guerrilla-led transitional body to run a long-disputed southern
region.

The move to set up the Southern Philippine Council for Peace
and Development would pave the way for the creation of an
autonomous region in the southern Philippines.

"This effectively resolves a most contentious political issue
bugging the peace negotiations and hopefully paves the way for a
final peace agreement in the near future," Philippine President
Fidel Ramos said in a statement released in Manila.

"The Council is welcomed not only for the benefits it will
reap in terms of public and private investments, but for its
impact on the lives and livelihood of our masses...many of whom
have been caught in a cruel cycle of conflict and poverty."

In a joint statement at the end of talks in southern Davao
city, Manila and the rebels expressed hope that a formal peace
pact between the two would be signed in Jakarta next month.

Over 50,000 people died at the height of the MNLF-led revolt
for Moslem self-rule in the 1970s. Rebels estimated the death
toll at about 200,000, mostly civilians.

MNLF chief Nur Misuari, a former university political science
professor, launched the revolt in 1972 shortly after then
president Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law.

Indonesia is the chairman of a special committee of the
Organization of Islamic Conference which is mediating the peace
negotiations that began in Jakarta in 1993.

Two key issues left unresolved -- an MNLF demand to set up its
own regional police force comprising 20,000 guerrillas and
integration of Moslem insurgents into the regular army -- would
be discussed by a special working group, the statement added.

"Maybe we are at the tail-end of the typhoon," Misuari said as
he went into the closing session.

"Our destination is in sight," chief government negotiator
Manuel Yan told the closing session. "There are some pitfalls
along the way but they are no longer as dangerous and steep."

The MNLF would head the council for peace and development and
the rebels have the power to supervise economic development in
the Mindanao region and adjacent islands, where most of this
largely Christian country's Moslem minority lives.

It would be guided by a consultative assembly of local
officials and representatives from non-government organizations.

The government has proposed Misuari as council chairman.

The body would also be able to call upon the military and the
police to carry out peace-keeping operations in the proposed
autonomous area of 14 southern provinces and nine cities.

After three years, the council would give way to an autonomous
region comprising provinces which would vote to join it in a
plebiscite.

Moslems consider Mindanao as their ancestral home, but decades
of Christian migration into a region rich with minerals and other
resources has turned them into a minority with little political
and economic clout.

Misuari, at the closing session, urged Ramos to make a
commitment he would honor the agreement and ensure lasting peace
in Mindanao. Ramos said he was "prepared to stand steadfast
beside the Council in all its worthy endeavors".

Ramos, in turn, challenged the rebels "to transform their
revolutionary fervor into the will to reform the society, to
engender a positive change in the political landscape and, most
of all, to serve the yearnings of our people for lasting peace,
progress and social justice".