ZAMBOANGA CITY — Philippine government forces have withdrawn from a former Muslim separatist guerrilla stronghold in the country’s south ahead of planned peace talks, the military said yesterday.
Unspecified military units guarding the Buliok complex completed a three-day redeployment on Thursday in keeping with an agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in February, said a statement by the military’s Southern Command based in Zamboanga City.
Malaysia has pledged to host the resumption of negotiations expected later this year as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo bids to bring a political settlement to three decades of rebellion by the nation’s large Muslim minority.
“The pullout is seen as a gesture of faith and good will on the government’s part as the peace talks resume between the state and the MILF,” the statement said.
Arroyo ordered the military to seize Buliok, near the town of Pikit, last year on grounds that MILF units in the area sheltered terrorists and kidnappers.
The MILF signed a cease-fire with Manila 14 months ago after the fighting left more than 150 people dead.
Government soldiers occupied in February last year the sprawling complex, an area that straddles the southern provinces of North Cotabato and Maguindanao. The military said more than 150 rebels and five soldiers had been killed in the fighting. The MILF said the area was their stronghold.
The military said it redeployed soldiers in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur, where authorities previously claimed were being used as hideouts of Jemaah Islamiyah militants, blamed for the series of bombings in the Philippines and Indonesia.
The military also previously linked the MILF to the Jemaah Islamiyah and the Al-Qaeda terror network, but rebel leaders strongly denied the accusations.
It did not say how many soldiers had been pulled out from Buliok, but the military had said in the past that more than 2,000 mostly Marine soldiers were stationed in the former rebel camp.
Several cease-fire monitoring posts were also put up in Buliok and four other towns in North Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces. Manila is currently negotiating peace with the MILF and talks are to resume next month in Malaysia, which is hosting the negotiations.
The MILF previously demanded the withdrawal of troops in Buliok and the dropping of criminal charges against rebel leaders in connection to the twin bombings last year in the southern port city of Davao that killed and wounded dozens of people before the peace talks could begin. Manila last month ordered the dropping of all criminal charges against the MILF.
“We welcome this action of the Philippine government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines and this will surely hasten the peace talks,” rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu told reporters.
