"We are even prepared to respond with an offer of a permanent ceasefire leading to the signing of a final peace agreement," Arroyo said

MANILA, May 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) declared Wednesday, May 28, a 10-day unilateral ceasefire as of next week to give peace talks a chance to resume in the troubled southern Philippines.

President Gloria Arroyo welcomed, in a statement, the MILF offer as "a positive and welcome development," but urged them to do more by complying with an earlier government demand to turn over suspected bombers and cut alleged links with terror groups, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

MILF military chief Murad Ebrahim signed the ceasefire declaration, the group spokesman Eid Kabalu said.

It would start on June 2 to give MILF field commanders enough time to receive and comply with the order, he added.

Kabalu told AFP the decision was in response to an "earnest call" from the dominant Roman Catholic Church as well as other peace advocates for an end to fighting in the Mindanao region.

"We hope the government will reciprocate this offer," he told AFP by phone from his base in the south.

"We are open to resuming the peace talks."

Extra Mile

Arroyo said, for her part, Manila was prepared to go the extra mile and urged the MILF to help government find a peaceful solution to the 25-year old conflict.

"Based on our validation of certain assumptions, we are even prepared to respond with an offer of a permanent ceasefire leading to the signing of a final peace agreement at the soonest possible time," Arroyo said.

However, she raised concern over the ability of the MILF to enforce discipline among its ranks on the ground, and stressed police and the military would remain vigilant for any attacks.

"We are awaiting MILF's positive response to our counter-offer," the president said.

Before departing for a state visit to the United States on May 17, Arroyo ordered the military to launch artillery and air strikes against MILF targets in the south to flush out those she called "the terrorists among them."

The campaign has so far left at least 77 MILF separatists and 11 soldiers dead, while nearly 100 other separatists surrendered.

Twenty-two soldiers and about 14 MILF gunmen were also wounded, according to an official count.

Arroyo also secured military backing from U.S. President George W. Bush who called on the MILF to abandon violence and pledged some 356 million dollars in security-related assistance to the Philippines to combat terrorism.

Bush also declared Manila a full non-NATO military ally to the United States.

Military southern command chief Major General Roy Kyamko said declaring a government truce would "not be agreeable to the courts of justice" since key MILF leaders including Murad have standing warrants of arrest. He vowed "punitive actions" will continue without let-up.

Serious Rights Abuses

Serious human rights abuses are committed with impunity in the Philippines against communist and separatist Muslim insurgencies, Amnesty International charged Wednesday.

The London-based rights watchdog, in its report on 2002, said the abuses included "unlawful killings" by both government forces and opposition armed groups.

The New People's Army (NPA) of the Community Party of the Philippines is waging a 34-year armed campaign against the government while the MILF has been fighting since 1978 for an Islamic state in the southern third of mainly Roman Catholic Philippines.

Amnesty also cited harassment, killings or "disappearances" of opposition politicians, activists and journalists as well as torture and ill-treatment of criminal suspects.

"Despite an extensive range of institutional and procedural safeguards, complaint mechanisms and legal sanctions, suspected perpetrators of serious human rights violations were rarely brought to justice and a climate of impunity persisted," Amnesty said.

"Failures in the administration of justice derived repeatedly from unjustified use of arrests without warrant, mainly against ordinary criminal suspects but also against suspected insurgents," it said.

Amnesty charged that suspects were tortured or ill-treated by the police or military to extract confessions or information.

Complaint procedures for victims failed to provide effective remedies, it said, adding that public confidence remained low in the independent Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Amnesty said at least 28 members of opposition groups critical of Arroyo's government policies were reported to have been killed by government forces since early 2001.

It singled out 22-year-old human rights activist Benjaline Hernandez, who was found shot dead with three companions in April last year.

Local residents who saw the bodies said that Hernandez's skull was crushed and that her face badly disfigured by bullet wounds, Amnesty reported.

Military officials stated that she was an NPA rebel killed in crossfire between rebels and militia but Amnesty "believed she was summarily executed as a result of her legitimate work in defense of human rights."