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.