RP army leaves captured camp

RP army leaves captured camp

RAJAMUDA, Philippines (AFP): The Philippine army withdrew from a Moslem guerrilla base here yesterday as a gesture to convince the insurgents to resume peace talks, military officials said.

The 70 soldiers, armed with mortars and assault rifles, boarded six trucks after a short ceremony to turn over the village to local police, who brought in the last of the civilian residents displaced by the fighting.

The military seized Rajamuda, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF) second largest base, at the end of a two-week military offensive last month which left 158 people dead. Forty- three thousand civilians fled the zone.

The MILF, fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern region of Mindanao for 19 years, has welcomed the military withdrawal and said its negotiators would return to the peace talks next Wednesday.