Talks with MILF to resume next week
E. Torres, Today
July 18, 2003
Peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will resume next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople said Malaysia, which is hosting the peace negotiations, will announce the resumptions of the talks anytime next week after concluding back-channel negotiations recently with the Muslim separatist rebels.
Ople is confident that technical and legal obstacles to the peace talks will be resolved in the next few days.
“These technical obstacles pertain to the subsisting warrants of arrests against ranking MILF officials in connection with a spate of bombings in Mindanao and arrangements for a cease-fire on the ground,” he said.
The Malaysian government has asked the Philippines to lift the arrest warrants and bounties against the MILF leaders before they host the peace negotiations in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysian Ambassador to Manila Mohammad Noor Taufik earlier said his country will be put in a dilemma if the Philippines decides to effect the existing arrest warrants against the MILF leaders once these people are in Kuala Lumpur for the peace negotiations.
The Malaysian government has also sought the inclusion of MILF chairman Hashim Salamat in the peace panel.
Ople said the Malaysian government has already agreed to lead the 25-man monitoring team that will include Islamic countries Libya, Bahrain and Bangladesh.
