RP-MILF peace talks to start this week

Formal peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) separatist guerrillas will start within this week in Malaysia, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople announced yesterday.

Ople said the Malaysian Cabinet will also take up the Philippine government’s request to send a team to monitor the ceasefire and the peace process with the MILF in Mindanao.

Ople said that in two to three days, the Malaysian government, which will play the principal role as peace broker with the United States in the supporting role, will signal the opening of the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the MILF.

The peace negotiations were made possible after President Arroyo signed a ceasefire agreement with the MILF.

Mrs. Arroyo said the government has reached a ceasefire deal with the MILF and agreed to lift the bounty reward on its leaders as well as military offensives against its fighters.

The MILF has demanded the dropping of the warrants of arrests issued against the guerrilla leaders to enable them to attend the peace negotiations.

The warrants of arrest were later lifted by the Davao City court which agreed for a reinvestigation of the case.

Salamat and other senior MILF leaders and commanders have been charged for the Davao City bombings that left a total of 38 people killed last March and April.

The government also agreed to issue 90-day safe-conduct passes to the rebel leaders to enable them to attend the talks in Kuala Lumpur.

The government had talked about abandoning talks with the MILF after the bombing of a public market in Koronadal, South Cotabato that killed three and wounded 31 others earlier this month.

But Mrs. Arroyo said the bombing would not deter the government from preparing for negotiations with the MILF unless the separatist rebel group is proven to be involved.

The ceasefire agreement was signed between chief government negotiator and presidential adviser on the peace process Eduardo Ermita and MILF vice chairman for military affairs Al Haj Ibrahim Murad.

Aware that past talks have failed, Mrs. Arroyo sounded optimistic that the decades-old separatist rebellion will end and that terror acts that have accompanied it will also cease.

The government then gave in to a key rebel demand that arrest warrants be dropped against MILF leaders for alleged involvement in a recent series of deadly bombings rocking Mindanao.

The 12,000-strong MILF has been fighting for an independent Islamic state for over two decades and has been blamed for deadly bombings and other terrorist acts.