Government-MILF talks in Kuala Lumpur postponed

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — The Philippine government and MILF rebel negotiators are not ready to proceed with peace talks due to have begun on the weekend, forcing a postponement, Malaysian organizers said yesterday.

"Both parties were probably not ready to proceed. They need to iron out some other things," a Malaysian official told AFP, declining to reveal the issues still to be resolved.

The talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), aimed at ending a decades-old Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines, were scheduled to begin Sunday.

They will likely resume within the next one or two months, the organizing official said. "They are likely to proceed. Both parties are determined to pursue peace," the official said.

In Mindanao, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu confirmed that Kuala Lumpur has served notice of the suspension of the peace talks with the government.

"There was a notice sent by the Malaysian government to our chief negotiator Brother Mohager Iqbal," he said.

Officials from the government panel, headed by former Palace communications director Silvestre Afable Jr., could not be immediately reached for comment.

Kabalu said the Malaysian government did not elaborate on the reasons for the postponement of the talks aimed at ending the decades-old secessionist movement in the South.

However, he surmised the postponement had something to do with the current crises faced by the Arroyo administration.

"But this does not mean that we are backing out from the negotiating table like the NDF (National Democratic Front)," Kabalu added.

Malaysia has been mediating peace talks between Manila and the 12,000-strong MILF, a Muslim rebel group that has been fighting for more than two decades to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of the Philippines. — With Roel Pareño