RP peace talks enter final stage

RP peace talks enter final stage

PHILIPPINES: Negotiations to end the Philippines' decades old
Muslim insurgency in the southern region of Mindanao have reached
their final stages, officials from both sides said on Tuesday.

Government and rebel negotiators had settled about 80 percent
of issues relating to "ancestral domain", or the minority's right
to profit from the resources of their traditional area, said Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader Murad Ebrahim.

The 12,000-member MILF, founded in 1978, is the last major
Muslim separatist guerrilla group in Mindanao, a resource-rich
but troubled region about twice the size of Belgium. Manila
signed a peace treaty with another faction, the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF), in 1996.

President Gloria Arroyo hopes a peace deal with the MILF would
isolate Islamic militants with alleged ties to the al-Qaeda
network who have used the lawless region as a sanctuary and
training base.

Ebrahim stressed that the MILF will not settle for autonomy
status and fall into the same trap as the MNLF, from which is
split in 1978.

Opting for limited self-rule, the MNLF dropped its
independence bid in 1996. An autonomous Muslim region was
created, made up of five Muslim-majority provinces, but the area
remains mired in poverty after the rebels refused to disarm,
discouraging investments. -- AFP