MILF vows to ensure sucess of tourism forum

DAVAO CITY (AP) — Muslim separatist rebels have been accused of scaring tourists away from the Philippines with terror attacks. But they said yesterday they’ll do whatever they can to ensure a meeting of Southeast Asian tourism officials and industry leaders is a success.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said the ASEAN Tourism Forum on Jan. 13-21 in Davao city — the site of deadly terror bombings — will promote the peace process to end more than three decades of fighting for a separate Muslim homeland in the south.

In a statement quoting Muhammad Ameen, secretary of the front’s central committee, the rebels said the MILF, "even without the request from the government or ATF, will help in whatever way to ensure the success of the forum."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is comprised of the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Malaysia is brokering peace talks between the Philippine government and the MILF. A ceasefire agreement signed in 2003 has prevented large-scale skirmishes between government troops and guerrillas.

The MILF said the tourism forum is a "significant step in projecting Mindanao as a hub of peace and (a tourism) destination" and that it was an "indirect endorsement" of the peace talks as the "most practical and civilized way" of resolving the conflict.

Mindanao is the country’s main southern island and considered by Filipino Muslims as their homeland.

The nine-day tourism forum includes talks among tourism ministers from ASEAN, China, India, Japan and South Korea. Officials from national tourism organizations, the ASEAN Airlines Association, the ASEAN Hotel and Restaurant Association and the Federation of ASEAN Travel Association also will hold meetings.

Separate bomb attacks in March and April 2003 by alleged operatives of the al-Qaeda-allied Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah killed 42 people at the Davao airport and the local wharf. A terrorist bomb last year killed a boy at a bus terminal in Davao.

The military and police initially blamed the MILF for the 2003 bombings, but the rebels vehemently denied the allegation. They suspended peace talks until the government withdrew the charges.

The rebels later issued a statement disavowing any links to terror groups and committed to help the military hunt them down.