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Philippines Offers New Deal To Moro Fighters
by Kazi Mahmood
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 (IslamOnline) - Manila has offered a new deal to Islamic separatists in Mindanao, in southern Philippines, and is said to have proven its good faith with the cessation of military operations against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) since Monday.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo officially declared it was time to ''heal and build'' the nation of Filipinos after nearly three years of brutal conflict between the Philippine army and the MILF.
The conflict, heightened under the rule of deposed president Joseph Estrada, resulted in a deep schism within the Filipino nation; with the MILF winning international support by resisted a Philippine army onslaught with the use of non-traditional military tactics.
With the declaration of peace, the new Philippine president offered to resume stalled peace talks and signified her intentions to accept certain demands by the separatists, sources said.
In principle, Arroyo has agreed that talks be resumed outside the Philippines, probably in a third country other than Indonesia and Malaysia. Qatar and Saudi Arabia had been mentioned while Estrada was still president.
However, Arroyo said there would be no withdrawal of government forces from the region yet. Observers state the move is necessary since the government does not desire to abandon the territory to the MILF.
Arroyo also rejected a long-standing separatist demand for the withdrawal of government forces from MILF bases overrun during the Estrada presidency.
Extending her efforts to being peace to the nation, Arroyo said in a televised speech that she was also considering halting military action against the communist rebels, the other major armed group that has fought Manila for years.
She added that the halt in military offensives against the MILF and the communists would enable more than 200,000 displaced people to return to their homes and ''and repair their shattered lives.''
''With the full consensus of the Cabinet, I have today issued an order to [the] Secretary of National Defense and the Armed Forces Chief of Staff directing a suspension of offensive military operations vis-a-vis the MILF,'' Arroyo said.
Her decision was intended "to lay the proper environment for the reconstruction of peace talks," she said. "Let us heal and build, but above all, let us be one."
Arroyo urged the MILF to reciprocate her gesture "by positive moves in the same direction."
"I hope that the MILF will take this move as ample proof of the sincerity and determination of the government to take the high road to peace," she said.
Arroyo made no reference to the Abu Sayyaf militia, the other separatist group operating in the country's south which gained world attention last year when it seized dozens of foreign and Filipino hostages from nearby Malaysian isles and on southern Jolo island.
Negotiations between Manila and the MILF, the largest group fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country, collapsed in August last year after the military seized more than 40 large and small MILF bases in line with Estrada's order for an all-out offensive against the separatists.
The MILF reportedly wants to regain control of Camp Abubakar, the largest MILF camp, to expedite the resumption of the stalled peace talks.
MILF chair Hashim Salamat was said to have made the demand, which will supposedly gauge the Arroyo administration's sincerity in resuming the peace negotiations.
The sprawling Camp Abubakar in Maguindanao was overrun in a massive Filipino military operation at the height of the conflict last year.
It was also reported that the MILF is demanding the pull out of Philippine military troops from other MILF camps in the region as well.
More than 120,000 people have died in the separatist war since it started in 1972, while over 40,000 have been killed in the insurgency war for the establishment of a Marxist state waged by the communist New People's Army since 1969.
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