Talks with Moro rebels off to good start: Ramos
Talks with Moro rebels off to good start: Ramos
MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos said yesterday that peace
talks with Moro rebels were "off to an auspicious start" in
Jakarta, voicing confidence progress could be made in settling
crucial issues before the weekend.
But the Philippine president hedged when asked in a news
conference if he hoped an agreement would be finally signed after
more than two years of talks, saying: "Let's just hope for the
best."
He said Manila's chief negotiator, Manuel Yan, informed him
that the talks were "off to an auspicious start" and that he was
confident that "forward momentum will be gained as the plenary
session ensues within the week."
Ramos, a retired general, also defended the beefing up of
military forces in southern Mindanao island ahead of the talks,
saying it was done to prevent radical groups from sabotaging the
negotiations.
Talks between Manila and the Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF) began Monday in Jakarta and are to last until tomorrow
under the supervision of the influential Organization of Islamic
Conference (OIC).
Indonesia, which has the world's largest Moslem population,
chairs the OIC executive committee.
The negotiations are aimed at hammering out an accord that
would give autonomy to this largely Roman Catholic nation's six-
million strong Moslem minority, most of whom live in Mindanao,
which they claim as their ancestral homeland.
He said "certain quarters" have "misunderstood" the troop
build-up in Mindanao by saying it could affect the atmosphere of
the talks, an apparent reference to MNLF chairman Nur Misuari,
who mentioned the troop build-up in Mindanao during a speech
Monday in Jakarta.
"We're doing our best to preserve the peace against those who
are wont to derail it for their selfish, if not irrational,
ends," Ramos said, assuring that "nothing in our actions is
directed at the MNLF."
A bomb blast rocked the office of a shipping firm in southern
Zamboanga province on Monday and armed men hurled three grenades
at a bus terminal in nearby Kabakan town, in North Cotabato
province on Tuesday, killing a boy and wounding 22 others.
On Sunday, suspected Moro fundamentalists shot and hacked to
death a Christian family of three in Sarangani province.
Ramos dismissed reports that the Kabacan and Zamboanga
incidents were the work of Moro fundamentalists as part of a plan
to sabotage the talks. He did not comment on the Sarangani
killings.
Police and military troops on Mindanao have been on full
combat alert since last weekend amid reports that the extremist
Abu Sayyaf group and the MNLF splinter faction, the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF), were planning to attack key cities
during the talks.
Although a cease-fire exists between the government and the
MNLF, the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf are not covered by the truce.
Government and Moro negotiators have been divided over the
boundaries of the new Moro autonomous region. Misuari insists on
self-rule for 13 provinces and nine cities in the south, while
Manila wants to put the issue to a vote for the benefit of the
majority Christian settlers.