ZAMBOANGA CITY, 7 January 2004 — Moro Islamic Liberation Front (PILF) peace negotiators are to open fresh rounds of talks with the Philippine government to draw up ground rules for the Malaysian observers, who are expected to arrive in the southern Philippines to monitor the truce between rebel and military forces, a separatist spokesman has said. Eid Kabalu said the peace panels will also meet with Malaysian officials in Kuala Lumpur this month to discuss the ground rules before the observers would be allowed to travel to Mindanao. “This issue is very important not only to us, but to everybody else because it would set the guidelines or ground rules of the Malaysian cease-fire monitoring team and the peace panels. We don’t want to have any problems on the ground that would further delay the peace talks between the MILF and the Philippine government,” Kabalu told Arab News. Malaysiais currently brokering the peace talks between Manila and the MILF, the country’s largest separatist rebel group fighting for an independent Muslim homeland in Mindanao.
