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".