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Philippines, MILF To Sign Peace Accord In Tripoli
TRIPOLI, June 22 (News Agencies) - The Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are to sign a peace accord later Friday providing for a ceasefire and a political settlement, a Libyan official said.
The official, who took part in the negotiations that began Wednesday, said the accord would be signed in Tripoli around 7:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) and a "total ceasefire" would go into effect immediately.
He said it provided for a demilitarization in the Muslim majority southern Philippines, the return of refugees, the conversion of military bases into economic development zones and the rebuilding of the south.
"The whole military presence of the authorities and the MILF in the south is to disappear and all weapons withdrawn," he said.
He also said the accord should aid in resolving the standoff between the Philippine authorities and another group which labels itself Muslim, the Abu Sayyaf, holding 25 hostages in the south of the country.
He quoted Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi as describing the hostage takings as "a cowardly and criminal act" in a meeting Wednesday with the head of the Philippine delegation in the negotiations here, Vice President Teofisto Guingona.
The peace talks are being held under the aegis of the Kadhafi Charitable Foundation, headed by the Libyan leader's son, Seif al-Islam, which helped to free hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf in August last year.
Earlier in Manila, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told reporters a ceasefire with the 12,500-member Muslim separatist group would go into effect around 1300 GMT.
"It will last until a complete political settlement with the MILF is reached," he added.
The MILF, whose military chief, Mohamad Murad, is heading his side here, has been in revolt against Manila since it split in 1978 from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
It has been waging a mostly low-level hit-and-run war to set up a separate state in the Mindanao region, the southern third of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippine archipelago.
The MNLF signed a peace treaty with Manila in 1996 that gave Muslims a measure of self-rule in four southern provinces. It was brokered by Organization of Islamic Conference countries, including Libya and Manila's southern neighbor, Indonesia.
Tiglao said Friday's truce accord would allow MILF forces to occupy a number of small camps in central Mindanao, and there would be "no military offensives on our part and on their part."
MILF forces were driven from their major training bases last year, including their main base of Camp Abubakar, in a bloody military campaign by Arroyo's predecessor Joseph Estrada. Estrada was deposed in a bloodless popular revolt last January.
"We have occupied these camps, so we are maintaining our forces there," Tiglao said.
The presidential spokesman said the ceasefire would allow for the return of several hundred thousand mainly Muslim non-combatants who were displaced by last year's flare-up.
The truce would allow the two parties to plan a "joint development effort, which means the MILF for the first time ... will be helping the existing government in developing these conflict-ridden areas."
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