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Philippine Government Proposes Indonesia As Venue For MILF Peace Talks
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
JAKARTA (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Philippines government has offered a meeting between President Estrada and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) leader Hashim Salamat to be held in Indonesia.
The Estrada regime hopes this offer will help resume stalled peace talks and bring the separatist leader back to the negotiation table. The MILF has said before they wanted talks to be held in a neutral “friendly” country.
Estrada also offered to drop any court charges against MILF rebels to lure them back to the negotiating table following an Organization of Islamic Conference's (OIC) call to end armed hostilities in Mindanao and for the government and the rebel group to start peace negotiations.
"We are offering them a ceasefire to take effect after a mutual agreement. We are doing everything to bring them back to the negotiating table. We are very willing to drop the charges against their leaders to regain their confidence in the peace talks," National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre said yesterday.
Aguirre said he is hopeful the MILF would heed the government offer.
"We continue to receive reports on our back-channeling efforts. And these reports indicate that the MILF is willing to return to the peace talks, only with certain preconditions. But this meeting is still being worked out," he added.
Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado said on Monday the government is optimistic the Moros could be persuaded to return to negotiations.
"The President has given us specific instructions to lay the groundwork for this new development. I think this will finally push the MILF to the negotiating table," Mercado told reporters here yesterday.
"President Estrada is serious about his offer to meet Hashim," he said.
The embattled Estrada administration said it would abide by the call of the OIC to resume talks. The MILF, however, said they were fed up with the Filipinos double language and lack of seriousness in the peace negotiations.
They called for a stop in the all out war against the MILF, the return of the camps captured by the government and desire that all conditions to be written in black and white.
After the fall of Camp Abubakar, Salamat called for a jihad (holy struggle) and the MILF shifted its tactics from semi-conventional to guerrilla warfare.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines is likely to oppose its withdrawal from the MILF camps.
But speaking for the military, Mercado said about an eventual retreat from the camps, "We cannot oppose something that is not yet being discussed. As I’ve said, the devil is in the details."
Hopes for resumption in the peace talks took another turn when Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid agreed to mediate between the government and the MILF.
Wahid offered to host a meeting between Estrada and Salamat, who was a schoolmate of Wahid.
Opposition spokesman Eid Kabalu said the MILF has received a notice from Wahid regarding the proposed meeting, but he declined to elaborate.
Kabalu said the MILF's central committee is considering the proposal.
The OIC's ruling body, the committee of seven, earlier sent a mission to the Philippines last October 16th to 23rd to assess the progress of the implementation of a peace agreement signed between the government and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1996.
In a memorandum to the President on November 20th, Aguirre said the OIC "recognized the progress of the implementation of the peace accord as it is called on both the GRP and MNLF to preserve the gains achieved as a result of the signing of the peace agreement."
He added that the OIC "did not condemn the Government Republic of the Philippines [GRP] in relation to the MILF conflict but rather urged both parties to pursue peace talks."
With this, Aguirre said the government intends to pursue peace talks while promoting peace and development in Mindanao.
"We are not abandoning Mindanao just because we have a political crisis. The situation is now under control. The military is not so much on the offensive but providing internal defense of towns in Mindanao. In fact, the government is even urging them to go back to the negotiating table," he said.
Aguirre said the military has so far seized 726 firearms from both the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF. He added 231 Abu Sayyaf and 1,545 MILF members have surrendered to the government.
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