TOKYO, 7 June 2003 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have agreed to resume peace talks between the government and the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) without any preconditions, a presidential adviser told reporters.
The two leaders reached the agreement when they met here Thursday morning, Norberto Gonzales, presidential adviser for special concerns, said.
At cocktails Thursday evening, the president was tightlipped about her meeting with Mahathir.
She said she preferred that announcements regarding the MILF be made in Manila. The president was to returned home last night after a two-nation swing to South Korea and Japan.
The president will spend one week in Mindanao from June 10 to 17.
“He (Mahathir) will continue to help again in the peace process,” Arroyo said.
Malaysia has brokered on-again, off-again peace talks between the government and the MILF for several years.
Gonzales also told reporters Thursday that he and MILF vice chair Al-Haj Ibrahim Murad talked by phone “two days ago” (that is, Tuesday, a day after the MILF’s unilateral cease-fire took effect) to discuss the resumption of talks.
“Malaysia is arranging the venue,” said Gonzales, who was present when Arroyo and Mahathir talked before the two leaders addressed a symposium on Asia’s future.
Asked if there were any preconditions for the resumption of talks, Gonzales said: “None.”
Murad is the chief negotiator of the MILF.
Asked about the condition she herself had set for the peace talks to resume, that the MILF renounce terrorism, the President said the rebel leadership had already done so, but those who carried out the raids and bombings would continue to be the targets of punitive military operations.
The Palace stressed in previous statements that the military operations were not aimed at the entire MILF but only against those involved in terrorist attacks.
But in Lanao del Norte province yesterday, soldiers clashed anew with rebels, in the third outbreak of violence since the MILF’s 10-day unilateral cease-fire started on Monday.
Capt. Gregorio Geocallo, civil military officer of the army’s 401st Infantry Brigade based in Iligan City, said the encounter occurred in barangay Liningding in Munai town.
Geocallo said an undetermined number of rebels were either killed or wounded while the government suffered no casualties.
In Cagayan de Oro City, Maj. Gen. Cristolito Balaoing, commander of the army’s 4th Infantry Division, said the military’s punitive action against the perpetrators of the April 24 attack on Maigo town was continuing.
Balaoing said the military operation was moving toward Mount Gurain in Lanao del Sur province. He said a number of rebels had died since Thursday but the military could not determine the exact number of fatalities on the MILF side.
He said MILF rebels led by Yahyah Lucsadatu, the highest-ranking rebel leader in the Lanao provinces, and Abdurahman Macapaar alias Commander Bravo, have taken refuge on Mount Gurain.
The military has subjected MILF positions on the mountain to aerial and artillery bombardment.
In Veruela town, Agusan del Sur province heavily armed communist rebels on Thursday morning ambushed a convoy of military vehicles carrying an army official.
Three soldiers were wounded in the incident that took place in barangay Sampaguita.
But Col. Juanito Cabayao, commander of the army’s 402nd Infantry Brigade based in Prosperidad town, said the ambush was part of the New People’s Army’s sympathy attacks aimed at diverting the military’s attention from its operations against the MILF in Northern Mindanao.
