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Philippines VP to Libya for Talks with Muslim Separatists
MANILA, June 18 (News Agencies) - Philippine Vice President Teofisto Guingona flew to Libya late Monday for landmark talks to end a decades long Muslim separatist movement in the Philippines, as a hostage crisis involving other so-called "Islamic" rebels threatened to destabilize the process.
Guingona headed a delegation of government negotiators, with talks with the 12,500-member Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) scheduled to open in Tripoli on Wednesday.
His presence on the trip was "an extraordinary expression of the government's political will" to end the conflict, Guingona said before leaving.
The MILF has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao, the southern third of the mainly Roman Catholic Philippine archipelago.
The talks will be presided over by Seif al-Islam, Libyan leader Moammar Kadhafi's son and president of the Kadhafi Charity Foundation. Malaysian and Indonesian representatives will also attend the talks.
Among the issues to be put forward in the first round of talks is an MILF demand for Manila to recognize more than 40 rebel-controlled areas, where there will be a complete "cessation of hostilities" in exchange for economic development.
Before leaving for Tripoli, Guingona, who is also foreign secretary, praised Libya's long role as a mediator in the 30-year campaign by various groups of Islamic separatists in Mindanao.
Tripoli, an influential part of the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), brokered a 1976 truce with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and later sponsored negotiations with Indonesia and Malaysia between the Philippines and the MNLF in 1996, resulting in a peace deal.
The MILF has been at war with the state for 23 years, born out of a schism with the MNLF in 1978, and was left out of the 1996 peace accord under which the MNLF settled for limited autonomy in the south.
In August 2000, the Kadhafi Charity Organization financed the liberation of 21 western hostages held by Abu Sayyaf, a ragtag group of self-styled Islamic fighters, on the southern island of Jolo.
The Abu Sayyaf currently holds 26 hostages in the south of the country. Libya has not been involved in mediation with the group this time.
Earlier Monday the MILF negotiating panel, led by military chief Mohammad Murad, said they would lodge a formal complaint over being linked by the military to the Abu Sayyaf.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu took offense at what he called the military's "sweeping allegations" the MILF was helping the Abu Sayyaf.
"We will present our complaints. We never helped nor are protecting the Abu Sayyaf," Kabalu said.
As a gesture of goodwill, he said, the MILF had made a public offer of assistance to recover the hostages, who include three Americans, but had been rebuffed.
Kadhafi had also extended a "general offer" to help solve the crisis, which Manila declined.
Kabalu said the MILF was now willing to lay down its arms "provided there is a permanent solution to the problem of Mindanao that would be acceptable to the Moro people."
"We are confident that a political settlement will be reached soon," he told news agencies, but declined to comment when asked if they would drop altogether their secessionist demands in exchange for limited self-rule.
"With the blessing of the OIC, we do not see any reason why we cannot reach our goal of a final solution to the problem," Kabalu said.
After the Libyan round, succeeding talks will be held in "shifting venues" between Tripoli and the capitals of fellow OIC members Malaysia and Indonesia, which will act as mediators, vice president Guingona said.
The MILF declared a jihad, or holy struggle, against Manila after a massive military assault last year by since-deposed President Joseph Estrada dislodged them from dozens of training bases in Mindanao.
Many were killed in the fighting, while thousands of residents were displaced and MILF leaders went into hiding.
Estrada was deposed in a military-backed popular uprising in January and replaced by Arroyo, who immediately moved to resume peace initiatives with the MILF and communist guerrillas.
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