Fears of new fighting with Malaysian ceasefire monitors’ pullout allayed

The impending withdrawal of Malaysian peacekeepers from Mindanao will not lead to renewed fighting between government troops and Moro guerrillas as long as both sides respect a ceasefire, an official said.

An initial group of 29 Malaysian ceasefire monitors will leave tomorrow and the remaining 12 are scheduled to follow by the end of August, scaling back the strength of a 60-man foreign contingent safeguarding a 2003 truce, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis said.

Pro-peace advocates have raised concerns that the withdrawal of the Malaysian monitors, who arrived in 2004, could spark new clashes, threaten the ceasefire and further undermine already stalled talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group.

President Arroyo’s adviser on the peace talks, Jesus Dureza, said he was confident that a joint committee set up by the government and the rebels to quickly resolve possible conflicts would work despite the absence of foreign monitors.

“Even if you deploy 1,000 foreign monitors, if the military and the MILF will not follow the ceasefire agreement, nothing will happen,” Dureza said at a news conference Wednesday.

Last week, Malaysia’s defense forces chief Gen. Abdul Aziz Zainal officially notified Philippine military officials of the Malaysian monitors’ planned pullout.

However, he said Malaysia will not abandon its role as mediator in the peace talks.

Malaysian mediator Othman Abdul Razak has said the negotiations, which hit a snag in December, will not move forward unless the Philippine government stops insisting that the talks conform with the country’s Constitution.

On Wednesday, Mrs. Arroyo thanked visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim for his country’s continued support for the talks.

During a separate meeting, Dureza spoke with Rais about the government’s hope that Malaysia would continue to broker the peace negotiations.

After the Malaysian monitors’ withdrawal, the remaining peacekeepers from Brunei and Libya will be deployed in just two of five conflict-affected regions previously guarded by the foreign contingent, chief government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia said.

The legal mandate authorizing the presence of the remaining foreign monitors, who have been credited for a considerable drop in clashes over the last four years, will have to be renewed by the government and the guerrillas by the end of August, Garcia said.

The MILF, which has been battling for Muslim self-rule in the south for decades, has an estimated 11,000 armed fighters.

US and Philippine officials hope a peace pact can transform many Mindanao regions into flourishing economic hubs instead of combat zones that can be a breeding ground for terrorism.  – AP