Gov't: MILF agrees to resume
'exploratory' peace talks
Posted: 5:30 PM (Manila Time) | Apr. 29, 2003
Agence France-Presse

THE MORO Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim separatist group in the Philippines, has agreed to resume exploratory peace talks with the government, officials said Tuesday.

The announcement came as Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Tun Razak held talks with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and senior officials to breathe fresh life into the fragile peace process.

For the last three years, Malaysia had been hosting peace talks between Manila and the 12,500-strong MILF, which has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the southern third of the Philippines since 1978.

Macapagal's adviser Norberto Gonzales told reporters that Malaysia would host a second round of exploratory peace talks in the first week of May.

"It will probably be a repeat of the exploratory talks that we held one month ago in Kuala Lumpur and I am optimistic about it," he added.

Macapagal is to hold talks with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi on the sidelines of an ongoing Southeast Asian summit in Thailand to discuss the talks with the MILF, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a statement.

A 2001 ceasefire agreement collapsed earlier this year after the government pursued a major assault on MILF camps allegedly used to harbor "terrorists."

Hundreds of people were killed, most of them MILF guerillas, and tens of thousands of civilians were evacuated.

The MILF allegedly retaliated by staging several bloody bomb attacks on civilian targets.

"Apparently, there was some misunderstanding on the terms (of the peace talks). We will sit down again and see how we will proceed with the formal talks," Gonzales said.

Najib urged the Philippines not to wage an all-out assault against the MILF even though there were extremists within that group who should be weeded out.

"The MILF is not a very homogenous group, there are extreme elements within the MILF. We have to deal with them at some point," he said.

"But excluding them and wanting to eliminate the entire MILF would in fact derail the peace process. If you do that, then you have decided you want to eliminate everyone and there will be no one to talk peace with," he told a national security forum.

Najib however warned that the MILF must combat radicalism and militant elements within its organization and stop pursuing a separate Islamic state.

"The whole idea that they can form a separate Islamic state is something that we will not support or condone and we will try to influence other Islamic countries not to support them in that cause.

"They have to work on a peace agreement within the context of the Philippine constitution," he added.

Najib said he had received various suggestions during his Manila visit to move the peace process forward, particularly in establishing "confidence building measures" mechanisms that can exist and go beyond peace accords.

"Sometimes signing on the dotted line is easy but to ensure that what is being signed is carried out is another challenge all by itself," he added.