ZAMBOANGA CITY, 5 February 2007 — Moro rebels yesterday freed government peace negotiators they have held for two nights in the southern Philippine island of Jolo after they were assured of more benefits under a 1996 peace accord.

Maj. Gen. Muhamad Benjamin Dolorfino of the Philippine Marines and 19 others were fetched by two helicopters from the Bitan-ag jungle base of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Panamo town of Sulu province and flown to the provincial capital, also called Jolo.

“We are happy that the crisis is over,” Dolorfino said, smiling broadly before a throng of government officials and journalists after alighting from a helicopter at an army camp in Jolo, 950 km (600 miles) south of Manila.

Dolorfino and Defense Undersecretary Ramon Santos, head of the government’s truce panel, visited the MNLF camp on Friday morning for talks with the MNLF about a shaky 1996 peace agreement and clashes between government troops and its members.

They also discuss their planned tripartite meeting with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

MNLF commander Habier Malik, however, refused to let his visitors leave the camp after they sought to postpone the tripartite meeting, which was scheduled Feb. 7-8 in Jeddah. Malik told Dolorfino they could not leave until there was assurance that the ong-delayed plan to meet would push through.

The OIC has proposed the meeting following complaints by the MNLF that many of the Philippine government’s commitments and obligations under a 1996 peace agreement have not been fulfilled.

A rebel spokesman had also demanded the release of MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari, who is under house arrest pending trial on charges of rebellion, so that he can lead the group’s delegation to the Jeddah meeting.

Malik also wanted the general to apologize for the killing of nine MNLF members and civilians in an encounter with Marines in the island last month. Three soldiers were also killed in the clash. The MNLF has said that the military wrongly identified the dead as members of Abu Sayyaf, the Philippines’ deadliest Muslim militant group, which Manila has vowed to crush.

In a ceremony filmed by local television, Malik handed over four assault rifles seized by the MNLF in the fatal encounter.

Philippine officials, led by presidential adviser Jesus Dureza, managed to get a commitment from OIC officials to meet to discuss the 1996 accord in Saudi Arabia next month, Dureza said.

Malik denied that he took Dolorfino’s group as hostages, but acknowledged in a phone interview with The AP that the rebels “have to do something to catch the government’s attention on the non-implementation of the 1996 peace agreement.”

Philippine officials also refused to call the incident a hostage crisis, apparently to avoid antagonizing the MNLF, which has hundreds of armed men on Jolo, and complicating a US-backed massive offensive against the Abu Sayyaf and Indonesian militants, who hide in forested mountains near MNLF strongholds.

The MNLF has earlier agreed to help the government hunt the Abu Sayyaf, Malik said. Dolorfino himself, while describing what happened as a “crisis,” said they were just “invited” to stay and “we agreed to the invitation to stay for a while.”

In an earlier interview with The Associated Press by cell phone from the rebel camp, Dolorfino said: “We were virtually held as hostages, but we were treated well,” he said. “We were used as leverage.”

In fact he said his soldiers were not disarmed, and were allowed to use their cell phones and given comfortable accommodation. “The joke around here is we were not taken hostage, but we were hosted,” he said while still in the rebel camp. Yesterday, he told reporters: “It was very tense. Although what they did was against our will, we understood their plight.” “We just cooperated with them. No cash paid, only sacks of rice and some sardines for the families of the victims of (the) Jan. 18 encounter,” he added.

In Manila, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s spokesman said in a statement that the government was committed to fully implementing the 1996 peace deal, which gave Muslims greater self-rule but floundered due to lack of funds and mismanagement.

“We acknowledge that there are outstanding issues with the MNLF that need to be resolved,” Ignacio Bunye said.

The tense standoff underscored the fragility of peace in the volatile south — the home of minority Muslims and site of a decades-long separatist insurgency.

The MNLF was the largest Muslim separatist group in southern Mindanao region until it decided to go for autonomy and signed a historic peace accord with the government in 1996.

Many of its members, however, refused to disarm over the years and maintained strongholds on Jolo and nearby islands. The guerrillas later accused the government of reneging on promises to deliver political and economic concessions to predominantly Muslim areas under the deal. (With reports by Agencies)