RP govt ready to hold talks with MILF

RP govt ready to hold talks with MILF

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines is ready to hold separate peace talks with a Moro insurgent faction which could emerge as the biggest armed threat to a newly signed peace deal with the main Islamic group, a senior official said yesterday.

Chief presidential peace adviser Manuel Yan said he was hopeful the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will accept the terms of the agreement reached with the mainstream Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

"If not, then we will have to conduct separate talks with the MILF," said Yan, who headed Manila's negotiating panel in the talks with the MNLF.

President Fidel Ramos' chief aide, Ruben Torres, said he expects the MILF to inform the government "by next week" whether they are in favor of the agreement.

The agreement's main provision is the creation of an MNLF-led council which will oversee development projects in 14 southern provinces.

This is intended to pave the way for the creation through a referendum in 1998 of a Moslem autonomous region in the main southern island of Mindanao.

"We have established the communication lines already," Torres said.

However, MILF deputy chair for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar told AFP early this week that the agreement was not acceptable to his group because it fell short of their demand for self-rule.

Jaafar said he expected the MILF to emerge as the main Moslem revolutionary force after the MNLF joined the government, adding that more MNLF fighters were defecting to his faction.

Some independent analysts have said the MILF is better armed than the MNLF. Jaafar said the MILF has close to 120,000 men, but the army said it has only 10,000.

Military officials say the MILF does not have a foreign "supply line" to wage a sustained rebellion, unlike the MNLF, which has observer status in the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Two other smaller MNLF offshoots, the extremist Abu Sayyaf and Islamic Command Council, could also pose threats through their terror tactics.

MNLF chairman Nur Misuari, who is in the southern city of Zamboanga, said he hoped these groups would not disrupt the agreement, adding: "We want them to respect the peace we have just signed. I want them not to disturb (the peace).

"And if they still disturb, then I will still appeal to them as many times as necessary, but of course there's a limit to everything."

Misuari, who arrived from the Moslem-dominated city of Cotabato, was met at Zamboanga airport by almost 1,000 supporters, including guerrillas from MNLF.

Zamboanga's mainly Christian residents ignored his arrival and there was no repeat of the angry protests after Misuari signed a peace agreement with the government in Manila on Monday.

Misuari was taken to a Moslem district on the outskirts of the city where he was to stage a ceremonial signing of the peace agreement.

The ceremony was originally scheduled for a sports stadium in central Zamboanga but it was transferred because of fears for Misuari's safety.