RP peace talks open after bomb blast
RP peace talks open after bomb blast
SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines (Reuter): A government panel and breakaway Islamic rebels opened preliminary talks yesterday on ending bloodshed in the southern Philippines, hours after extremists bombed a cinema, wounding at least 14 people.
Retired army Gen. Fortunato Abat and chief rebel negotiator Moner Bajunaid embraced each other in a heavily-guarded building to start the talks between the Manila government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The MILF is a breakaway faction of the mainstream Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), with which President Fidel Ramos' administration concluded a separate peace deal last October.
Hours before the talks started, a home-made bomb exploded in a crowded cinema in the largely Christian city of Iligan, 110 kilometers (70 miles) to the north, wounding 14, police said.
Police said they suspected either Moslem extremists or leftist guerrillas for the Monday night attack, which occurred during the showing of the Hollywood movie "Time to Kill."
Most of the victims, who included a Finnish national, were injured in a stampede after the explosion, police said.
"There are groups who are not happy over the ongoing talks," police senior superintendent Ernanito Baul told Reuters. He said the bombers apparently wanted to derail them.
Government forces and the MILF will discuss the ground rules for a ceasefire at the Sultan Kudarat talks with formal peace negotiations expected to get under way after the end of Ramadan, the Moslem fasting month which starts in mid-January.
The MILF is one of two groups fighting for an Islamic state in the Mindanao region, which the largely Christian country's five million Moslem minority regards as its ancestral homeland.
The fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf group has shunned talks with Manila. The military has blamed it for bombings, kidnappings and raids on Christian towns in the past three years.
The mainstream MNLF, considered the most moderate of the three groups, spearheaded a 24-year revolt for Moslem autonomy which ended with the October peace accord. About 125,000 people died in the MNLF-led uprising.
As part of his peace deal with Manila, MNLF chairman Nur Misuari heads a four-province semi-autonomous region in the south and is chairman of a development council which will supervise development projects in a wide area of Mindanao.
"We are here because we all want peace," Abat told the opening session of the technical committee talks.
Abat said he would recommend to Manila a 60-day extension of a unilateral ceasefire announced in November after skirmishes between the army and the MILF on Basiland island.
Bajunaid voiced hope the talks "will get us closer towards a genuine and lasting peace acceptable to the (Moslem) people".
The military estimates MILF strength at between 6,000 and 8,000 men and that of the Abu Sayyaf at several hundred. The MILF says it has 80,000 fighters.