MANILA: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has rejected the Philippine government’s offer to resume peace negotiations after turning over three rogue field commanders.
Presidential peace adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the government was ready for talks with the MILF on disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. A political settlement could come later, he said.
“What the government was asking us to do was to surrender first and then talk,” Mohaqher Iqbal, head of the MILF peace panel, told Reuters after hearing word of Esperon’s offer. “If the government would insist on that position, we think it’s becoming impossible to go back to the negotiating table. We can’t turn over our own people because we have a set of rules under our cease-fire mechanism. That’s not the way to do it.”
Esperon said Manila has relayed its latest position to the rebels through the Malaysian government, which has been brokering peace talks between the two sides since March 2001.
Esperon was in Kuala Lumpur last week. In a meeting with Othman Abdul Razak, Malaysia’s chief facilitator to the peace talks, Esperon said he emphasized four main points, including two conditions before talks could resume.
“We have asked him to relay specific items to the MILF leadership...and turn over Umbra Kato and Bravo to authorities,” he said, referring to two of three rogue rebel field commanders.
Military officials later said the government was also seeking the surrender of a third MILF commander, Panglian.
Fighting has subsided since the start of Ramadan on Sept. 1 but flared up at the weekend when MILF rebels attacked army positions in four provinces.
Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, an army spokesman, said an estimated 25 rebels were killed when troops repelled the attacks using heavy artillery and airstrikes.
“We lost only one soldier,” he added.But, a MILF spokesman said the group lost only two fighters and killed eight soldiers.
