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.