MANILA, 17 November 2002 — Formal peace talks between the Philippine government and Muslim separatist rebels are expected to resume next month in Malaysia, a rebel spokesman said yesterday.
“It will resume hopefully by the middle of December,” said Eid Kabalu, spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). “This will no longer be back-channeling. Hopefully it will be formal.”
Formal negotiations were suspended in October 2001 after the two sides failed to agree on how to implement socio-economic projects in areas where the MILF operates.
The government had been concerned that if the MILF solely managed the projects, it could have made them appear to be the legitimate rulers of the affected areas.
During informal talks in May, the two sides agreed that a committee staffed by local Muslim leaders not linked to the MILF would oversee the projects.
He said the final stumbling block to a peace deal was the issue of recognizing the Muslim minority’s ancestral lands, including territories in the southern Philippines that the MILF claims historically belong to Muslims.
“There are also reports that the government will present a formula, a political package,” he said.
The government and the MILF both accuse each other of violating a shaky 1997 truce.
Some military and government officials have accused the MILF of supporting the terrorist activities of the smaller but more violent Moro extremist Abu Sayyaf group. MILF leaders have denied any links to the Abu Sayyaf and have offered to conduct joint investigations of the allegations with government authorities.
For instance, he said, the kidnapping of Korean national Jae Kwoon Yeon and businessman Carlos Belonio in February were immediately blamed on its fighters.
“The national police kept blaming our Commander Tigri Jikiri as the perpetrator and no amount of denial could reverse their claim. By the time the truth came out that Commander Tigri had indeed no participation whatsoever, the MILF was already knocked down in the eyes of the media and to the public for that matter,” said Kabalu.
