MANILA: The Philippine government’s refusal to sign an accord granting Muslims more autonomy in the south makes it virtually impossible for insurgents to forge a peace deal with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a chief rebel negotiator said yesterday.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will not resume Malaysian-brokered talks unless the Philippine government agrees to sign a preliminary accord on an expanded Muslim autonomous region, an accord that took years to negotiate, negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said. The government refused to sign the accord after three rebel commanders led a deadly rampage against southern Christian communities, prompting a major military offensive.
“It’s almost impossible to make a peace deal under this presidency,” Iqbal said. “The level of trust is practically zero.” Just weeks ago, a peace deal to end the decades-long Muslim rebellion in the southern Mindanao region had seemed within reach after government and rebel negotiators initialed the highly contentious accord on ancestral domain.
The accord seeks to expand an existing Muslim autonomous region by adding more than 700 villages subject to the approval of residents in a plebiscite.
But Christian politicians in areas that would be affected challenged the deal in the Supreme Court, triggering the Aug. 18 attacks on predominantly Christian towns in Mindanao. Government forces launched air and ground assaults targeting the three rebel commanders and the men who conducted the raids.
The rebel attacks and subsequent military assault killed at least 47 civilians, while more than 360,000 have been displaced, the government said. At least 17 soldiers and pro-government militiamen and more than 100 guerrillas also were killed, according to the military. The rebels say they lost only 10 fighters.
Rebel leaders have called on the government to stop the assault.
“Our armed forces and our police will take into account the sensitivity of our Muslim brothers and sisters,” Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said. But “we will not allow these lawless elements to ... hide behind Ramadan. They have committed not only criminal acts but un-Islamic acts,” he said.
