Maguindanao evacuees want truce extended

SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao — Government and rebel negotiators have succeeded in disengaging warring forces here, but evacuees want an extension of the three-day suspension of hostilities to ensure unhampered relief operations.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza, who brokered the three-day truce, which ends today, between Moro rebels and pro-government militiamen, said the joint ceasefire committee of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are still preoccupied with the repositioning of the two forces.

Local militias and rebels had figured in skirmishes in Shariff Aguak, Mamasapano and Datu Unsay towns, sparked by the June 23 roadside bombing here that killed seven people, two of them relatives of Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan.

The three-day truce, according to Dureza, was partly aimed at providing "an opening" for peaceful efforts to convince the bombing suspects to voluntarily turn themselves in and hasten the delivery of relief aid to thousands of villagers displaced by the hostilities.

Dureza said the truce would allow the joint ceasefire panel and the Malaysian-led international monitoring team, led by Gen. Pahlawan Soheimi, to convince the feuding militias and Moro rebels to disengage in preparation for low-level negotiations on the peaceful surrender of the bombing suspects.

Under the government-MILF agreement on cessation of hostilities and other previous low-level security accords, the two ceasefire committees have to mutually cooperate on interdicting criminals and terrorists in areas where there are rebel forces.

Dureza held a peace dialogue here Thursday with local officials led by Maguindanao Gov. Datu Andal Ampatuan and his son, Datu Zaldy, governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

In the presence of the Ampatuans, Dureza ordered Ramon Santos, chairman of the government’s coordinating committee on the cessation of hostilities, to work out with his counterpart in the MILF, Von Al-Haq, the surrender of the bombing suspects.

Arrest warrants have been issued for suspects Ameril Ombra Kato, Ustadz Wahid Tundok, Said Pakiladatu, Abu Nasrie Benito, Baguindali Abdullah, and Kagui Macmod.

Pakiladatu and Ombra, both acknowledged commanders of the MILF, have both denied any involvement in the attack, the worst attempt on the life of the elder Ampatuan, who was thrice ambushed in 2001.