RP rebels and government meet to defuse tensions

RP rebels and government meet to defuse tensions

COTABATO, Philippines (Agencies): Secessionists and government
peace negotiators met for emergency talks yesterday to defuse
tensions over an alleged military buildup around the main rebel
camp in the southern Philippines.

The meeting was called by Ghazali Jaafar, chief peace
negotiator for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, after the
rebels expressed "displeasure" over the reported buildup.

Military commanders said the deployments around Camp Abubakar
were part of a routine reshuffle of troops, but the rebels said
the size of the government forces was unusually large and the
troops were suspiciously close to the camp.

The deployment followed an attack by two suspected Arab Moslem
extremists on one of the country's biggest military camps in the
southern Philippines last week. The alleged attackers -
identified as a Saudi Arabian and an Egyptian - and three
soldiers were killed.

It also followed warnings by the military that soldiers will
attack rebel positions if the rebels repeat the public execution
of two alleged murderers last month.

At yesterday's meeting, the government agreed to withdraw its
troops to their positions last week, about 1 kilometer from the
nearest MILF positions. The rebels in turn agreed not to execute
prisoners they are holding.

The two sides also agreed to let an independent fact-finding
committee headed by a local Roman Catholic priest investigate the
alleged Arab attack.

In addition the two sides agreed to closely monitor a 3-month-
old cease-fire agreement and seek the return of more than 5,000
people who fled their homes out of fear of being caught in the
cross-fire from a possible military assault on the camp.

The camp is a 15,000-hectare complex of rebel outposts, farms
and seven civilian districts in a mountainous area along the
borders of three provinces on the southern island of Mindanao,
850 kilometers south of Manila.

It is home to more than 10,000 people, many of them Moslem
settlers from other southern provinces who have been attracted by
the promise of rising from poverty under strict Islamic laws
practiced by the rebels.

The military chief in the area said his forces were prepared
to take the camp, which the army has claimed is being used as a
training base for foreign Moslems to carry out further attacks.

Amid a troop build-up outside the camp, the local church-run
radio station DXMS reported most women and children had fled the
town of Matanog.

And there was a tense stand-off with the military and rebel
forces separated by only 400 meters taunting each other, the
radio added.

Maj. Gen. Raul Urgello, head of the military forces in this
southern town, said his troops were prepared for anything
including "additional suicide bomber attacks" on more military
units.

Al Haj Murad, the MILF vice chairman for military affairs, has
said that an attack on the camp would trigger a "jihad" or holy
war by the rebels.

The Moslem rebels threatened to spread their war across the
southern Philippines if the military carried out any attacks on
their camp.