RP sets vote for expansion of Muslim self-rule

RP sets vote for expansion of Muslim self-rule

MANILA (Agencies): Millions of residents in the southern
Mindanao region of the Philippines will vote on Aug. 15 on
whether to join areas under Muslim self-rule, President Gloria
Arroyo said on Friday.

The plebiscite covering 10 provinces not already under the
four-province Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is part
of the terms of a 1996 peace agreement that ended the separatist
campaign of Muslim rebels under the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF).

The proposed ARMM expansion is seen to accommodate a second
separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which
signed a truce with the Manila government last week preparatory
to an expected political settlement.

Arroyo told a news conference the vote would dovetail with the
"final phase of the peace accord" with the MILF.

She told visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid prior
to the news conference that "whatever agreements (Manila) will
have with the MILF, it will be within the same framework as the
MNLF," an official who attended the meeting told reporters.

Arroyo said this means there will be "no overlapping of
agreements" or the creation of a second autonomous Muslim region
in Mindanao, said the official, who asked not to be named.
Indonesia helped broker the MNLF agreement.

Mindanao, a resources-rich area that is twice the size of
Belgium and is populated by 18 million people, has been wracked
by three decades of Muslim rebellion. Muslims make up less than a
fourth of the region's population and live in the poorer areas.

Only four majority-Muslim provinces elected to join the ARMM
in a plebiscite held shortly before the peace agreement with the
MNLF. Christian settlers make up the majority in most of the
other provinces there.

Arroyo said Philippine government negotiators who held talks
with the MILF in Tripoli, Libya last week committed to the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) a "firm timetable"
for the peace process.

This includes "a plebiscite on August 15 and a regional
election on Nov. 26 for the ARMM."

The MNLF founder, Nur Misuari, is the current governor of
ARMM, which enjoys a measure of self-rule. "As the peace process
moves forward, I am optimistic that Mindanao will become the
focus of development assistance from some of the countries
belonging to the OIC," Arroyo said.

The peace "will help us realize earlier than planned the
development of Mindanao, which even now is number one in my list
of priorities for investment growth."

Arroyo said the talks with the MILF "will move to Kuala
Lumpur, and later perhaps to Jakarta in accordance with the
shifting venue arrangement that was mutually decided" by the
government and the MILF.

Wahid told Arroyo on Friday that Jakarta's offer to host the
next round of the talks "still stands," officials who attended
the bilateral meeting said.

The Indonesian leader told reporters Arroyo expressed her
appreciation for Jakarta's help in mediating the peace talks, and
restated an offer of Pantar Barat, an island off Jakarta, "for
the purpose of accepting (MILF leader) Salamat Hashim if he
decides to become a refugee."

Hashim has not publicly indicated he would want to live
abroad.

Meanwhile, military leaders trying to capture a band of
extremists and free their hostages, said on Friday troops had
killed four rebels from other groups this week - and not any of
the kidnappers as previously claimed.

"They were in the way," said Lt. Col. Danilo Servando,
spokesman for the military's Southern Command, who had to correct
previous claims the military made about its successes in tracking
and engaging the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers.

Even though troops were shooting at the wrong rebels and their
initial reports from the field were incorrect, Servando defended
their actions as appropriate under the circumstances.

The soldiers believed they had been fighting with the Abu
Sayyaf while in fact they were shooting at members of other
groups that have agreed to cease-fires, Servando said.

Arroyo said she has asked the United States to help her crush
the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas by providing surveillance expertise and
equipment. Arroyo said the U.S. response "has been quite
positive" but she provided no details.

Other Philippine officials had said previously the government
was seeking U.S. assistance in solving the crisis, now in its
second month.

"The government is not willing to be held hostage by such
terrorist groups as the Abu Sayyaf," Arroyo told a business
conference in Manila. "They are scum and we will get them."