Wahid arranging talks with Moro: Estrada

Wahid arranging talks with Moro: Estrada

MANILA (AP): Indonesia's president has contacted a Moro rebel
leader and is arranging talks between him and Philippine
President Joseph Estrada, Estrada said on Monday.

Estrada said Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid offered
last week at a summit of Asian Rim leaders in Brunei to serve as
a go-between in arranging talks between the Philippine president
and Salamat Hashim, head of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Estrada said he received a telephone call on Monday saying
Abdurrahman had already contacted Salamat and that a meeting was
being arranged.

A meeting between Estrada and Salamat would give a significant
political boost to Estrada, who is facing an impeachment trial on
charges he pocketed millions of dollars in payoffs from illegal
gambling operators and from tobacco taxes.

Estrada suspended peace talks with the MILF in June after it
refused to abandon its secessionist goal and its armed struggle.

Estrada's government launched an offensive to overrun MILF
camps in the southern Mindanao region earlier this year,
prompting Salamat to declare a jihad or holy war against the
government.

Since then, rebel attacks on government forces and targets
have increased and Estrada's government has sought to restart the
peace talks.

Many guerrillas have also surrendered to accept amnesty from
the government. In the latest surrenders, an MILF commander and
16 of his followers surrendered Saturday to military officers in
southern Lanao del Sur province, army spokesman Col. Hilario
Atendido said.

The MILF is the larger of two groups fighting for an
independent Islamic state in the southern Philippines. The other,
the Abu Sayyaf, is holding an American and a Filipino hostage in
the southern Philippines.

Indonesia earlier helped broker peace talks between the
Philippine government and another Muslim rebel group, the Moro
National Liberation Front, that led to a peace agreement in 1996.