ZAMBOANGA CITY, 11 December 2003 - An advance team of Malaysian military observers are arriving Monday in Manila to monitor the truce between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), officials said yesterday.
Officials said the eight-member team, headed by a brigadier general, are to meet with Philippine military officials and members of the government peace panel negotiating with the country’s largest separatist rebel group.
Malaysia is brokering the peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the MILF in an effort to help end more than three decades of war that has left more than 120,000 dead in the southern Philippines. The MILF is fighting for an Islamic state in the southern region collectively called Mindanao.
The observers are also to meet with the MILF peace team and their leader Murad Ebrahim in Maguindanao province next week. They will inspect areas where the rebels maintain camps, a Malaysian security official said.
They will also visit the key cities of Zamboanga, General Santos, Cotabato, as well as the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, North and South Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat.
The Philippine military yesterday said 30 more cease-fire observers from Libya, Malaysia and Brunei are also expected to arrive in the coming days to form part of the main body of the monitoring team.
Formal peace talks is expected to begin next month in Kuala Lumpur. But the MILF earlier said it did not expect to sign a peace deal with the Arroyo government.
“We need more time and time is running out for the government because national elections are due in May. The government is forcing us to sign a peace agreement, but we refused because the MILF has to consult the Bangsamoro people. At stake here if the future of the Muslim people in the Philippines,” the Front’s spokesman Eid Kabalu told Arab News.
Kabalu said the government wanted to strike a peace deal with the MILF to boost the election bid of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the military has monitored as many as 31 Indonesian JI militants training Filipino “terrorists” near MILF camps in the southern region.
He said the foreigners were said to be hiding in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte, where the MILF is maintaining several jungle encampments. “We are closely monitoring these reports because the JI has not ceased training terrorists,” Ermita said, adding, the militants are looking for an opportunity to sow terror.
The MILF has denied any links with JI or Al-Qaeda network and said it was not providing training or safe refuge to terrorists. The MILF has also denied links with the Abu Sayyaf, an extremist gang notorious for kidnapping activities and for beheading non-combatants.
‘Robot’ Loses Leg
Meanwhile, military doctors in Zamboanga City have amputated a leg of Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang leader Galib Andang, who was wounded and captured by troops, officials said yesterday.
Andang - also known as Commander Robot - of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, was nabbed during a gunfight on the southern island of Jolo on Sunday.
He had been one of the most wanted fugitives in the Philippines accused of kidnapping and sometimes beheading hostages.
A military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said a major artery in his left leg had been severed and the limb was removed above the knee on Tuesday after gangrene had set in.
“There was no recourse but to amputate it to save his life,” Lucero said.
The 36-year-old bandit is under heavy guard at a military hospital amid fears that his comrades might try to free him.
Officials said that since his capture, Andang had expressed remorse and was cooperating with authorities wanting to hunt down his gang.
Andang is accused of staging a string of hostage-taking during the past decade, including the 2000 abduction of 21 people, including Western tourists, from the Sipadan Island resort in neighboring Malaysia.
The hostages were held for months and released after a ransom was paid.
If convicted, Andang faces the recently reinstated death penalty.
Andang’s Abu Sayyaf faction is also alleged to have beheaded several Filipino captives.
In 2001, another faction within Abu Sayyaf kidnapped three Americans and 17 Filipinos. One American was beheaded and one died during a military operation that led to the rescue of the third.
The kidnapping spree prompted the United States to send more than 1,000 soldiers for a counterterrorism exercise that helped Filipino troops dislodge the group from their former base on Basilan Island. The Abu Sayyaf is on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
