Gov't-MILF talks resuming within days

 

MANILA (AFP) - Peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels in Mindanao could start in Malaysia within days, Kuala Lumpur's ambassador to Manila said yesterday.

 

Saying the decades-old rebellion in the Mindanao region is a threat to neighboring Malaysia's national security, Ambassador Taufik Mohamed Noor urged the two sides to try their best to conclude a political settlement within 90 days.

The 12,500-member MILF has been waging a 25-year guerrilla campaign to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the largely Roman Catholic Philippines, which is also beset by a 34-year communist insurgency.

Taufik said President Gloria Arroyo's emissaries met Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) counterparts in Kuala Lumpur last weekend after Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government convinced the MILF to return to the negotiating table.

"What has been agreed is for the peace talks to start as soon as possible. I think it could start within days, I would imagine," he said, adding that the situation was now "conducive" to restarting talks disrupted by an upsurge of guerrilla violence in March.

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople earlier said he expected the stalled talks to resume by July 1.

Taufik urged Manila to suspend arrest warrants and bounties - issued against MILF leader Salamat Hashim and other key lieutenants for their alleged role in a series of bombings and raids that claimed about 100 lives in Mindanao since March - so they could travel to Malaysia and lead the talks.

He noted that the MILF has complied with other conditions, includ-ing its declaration of a unilateral ceasefire this month and Hashim's making a public statement denouncing terrorism.

But Arroyo spokesman Ignacio Bunye told reporters the issue of arrest warrants "would have to be tackled at a later stage".

Arroyo said in a statement: "We have a separate doctrine for peace, for law enforcement, and for fighting terrorism. Upholding the law and fighting terror shall not relent even in the presence of the peace process."

Taufik said the Malaysian foreign ministry was meeting Friday to consider a Philippine request for Malaysia to lead an international "ceasefire monitoring team" that would also include soldiers from fellow mainly Muslim countries Bangladesh, Bahrain and Libya.

Barring any major unforeseen obstacles, Taufik said there should be no reason the Malaysia talks would not result in a political settlement.

Asked if Kuala Lumpur considered the rebellion as a threat to Malaysian security, Taufik said: "Yes it will (threaten security), obviously it will."

"We want peace and stability in Mindanao not only for the Philippines" but for Southeast Asia, Taufik said.

The region is now "the center, the bedrock of terrorism" he said.

"We can't deny that we have a very serious problem here," he added. "We can't deny the networking among them and their relations with other terrorist groups in other parts of the world."

He also said the areas adjacent to Mindanao, including Brunei and eastern Malaysia, are "not growing as well as we wanted it, basically because of the problem in the southern Philippines".

Malaysia has blamed the rebellion for the serious problem of illegal migrants and crime in Sabah state.

The MILF has rejected allegations it provided training sites at its Mindanao camps for the Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for a series of bombings in the region including the Bali attack that claimed more than 200 lives last year.

Arrest warrants

 

Malaysia has urged the Philippines to freeze the arrest warrants on Hashim Salamat and other Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leaders before the peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF resumes.

Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines Mahammad Taufik said his government wants Salamat to be in the peace negotiations in Kuala Lumpur next month.

"But we don't want him there with a warrant of arrest.What if the Philippine government turns around and tells us to arrest him? It would be an embarrassment," Taufik told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines inMakati.

He added the lifting of the arrest warrants and the conditions for their suspension "will be discussed in our agenda." He said only the Philippine Supreme Court has the power to lift the arrest warrant.

Taufik called on the MILF to decide on their representative to the upcoming peace talks. He said the internal problems within the MILF should be resolved to ensure the success of the peace negotiations.

Earlier this week, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas F.Ople said the Philippine government had asked the MILF to submit at least five names of negotiators.

Taufik said the decision of Bahrain, Bangladesh, and Libya was their own and not of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

"The OIC does not recognize the MILF," he said.

Taufik also welcomed the United States' decision to provide diplomatic and financial assistance to the peace process.

"The United States has committed itself to the peace and development of Mindanao and I know the Institute for Peace will be America's focal point of participation," he said. (David Cagahastian)

Pimentel

 

CHICAGO, Illinois - Senator Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel said yesterday that he will go to Washington, DC, next week to meet with former US Ambassador to the Philippines Richard H. Solomon, president of the United States Institute for Peace, a foreign policy think tank created by the US Congress, "to take action on the movement to broker peace in Mindanao."

"Let the talking end, let us start making Senate Resolution 57 approved by the Philippine Senate work," Pimentel said from Los Angeles, California.

Pimentel was the principal guest at the weekly meeting of the Media Breakfast Club (MBC) at the Social Hall of the Filipino American Community of Los Angeles (FACLA) at 1740 West Temple St. corner Burlington Drive, Los Angeles, at the invitation of MBC founder and chairman emeritus Bobby M. Reyes.

Senate Resolution 57 urges the United States to help the Philippines "establish a just and lasting peace in Mindanao by acting as a broker of peace instead of sending US soldiers."

Pimentel said the US should exhaust all its diplomatic influence to solve the Mindanao conflict like it did in brokering peace between the Irish Republican Army and Ireland and the Middle East, among others.

"If the US succeeded in forging peace in these troubled parts of the world, I don't see any reason why the Us will fail in Mindanao," Pimentel said. (J. Garra Lariosa)