ZAMBOANGA CITY, 22 February 2004 — More than 200 troops have pulled out from several Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) strongholds in the southern Philippines as government and rebel peace negotiators ended fresh rounds talks in Malaysia.
MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said hundreds of government soldiers have left their camps in Buliok mountain complex in Maguindanao province, a traditional stronghold of the MILF.
He said troops have gradually pulled out since Tuesday in Pagalungan town, but hundreds more are still encamped in Pikit town in the neighboring North Cotabato province.
“More than two hundred troops have gradually pulled out from Pagalungan, but more are still in Pikit town,” Kabalu told the Arab News.
Government and rebel leaders ended their first round of talks in Kuala Lumpur late Thursday and would resume negotiations again in April, Kabalu said. “We are optimistic about the peace process and we are happy about this development.”
Both sides have agreed to a cease-fire last year and after fierce clashes broke out in the southern Philippines.
Exploratory talks hosted by Malaysia earlier this week led the Philippine government and MILF to agree to hold formal negotiations, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said in Kuala Lumpur.
In a statement in Manila, President Gloria Arroyo thanked Malaysia for brokering the talks, saying “peace has gained another milestone” with the expected resumption of formal negotiations. “All obstacles to final peace negotiations have been overcome,” Arroyo said.
The military said troops were only redeployed to other towns in Maguindanao. “Soldiers were not pulled out, but only re-positioned to other areas,” a military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero said in a separate interview yesterday evening.
Lucero did not say how many troops had been redeployed, but Kabalu said more than 1,000 soldiers are currently stationed in Buliok, a 300-hectare mountain complex on the borders of North Cotabato and Maguindanao provinces.
Troops had occupied a major MILF headquarters in Buliok last year after months of fierce clashes that left hundreds of rebels and soldiers dead and wounded.
Kabalu said both the MILF and the government peace panels, headed by Armed Forces of the Philippines deputy chief Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia and Mohaqer Iqbal, also the rebel’s information chief, agreed to allow a small team of Malaysian truce observers to the southern Philippines.
“There is already a term of reference for the visiting Malaysian cease-fire observers and it is being finalized. There will be a small advance team of truce observers that will come to survey areas in the south,” he said without elaborating.
Kabalu said more than 500 soldiers are also deployed in the towns of Lambayong in Sultan Kudarat province and in Sultan sa Barongis in Maguindanao in the guise of pursuing the Abu Sayyaf group and members of the Pentagon kidnagp gang.
The MILF previously accused security forces of encroaching into their strongholds triggering clashes.
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said they have monitored as many as 31 Jemaah Islamiya militants training Filipino terrorists in central Mindanao.
He said the foreigners were 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 only looking for an opportunity to sow terror.
A recent military intelligence report said at least 15 Filipino terrorists have graduated in January from a secret JI training camp in Butig town in Lanao del Sur province.
Kabalu has strongly denied Ermita’s report and said the MILF has no links either with the Jemaah Islamiya or the Al-Qaeda terror network. “We have repeatedly denied this allegation. The MILF has no links whatsoever with the Jemaah Islamiya, not even the Al-Qaeda network or Usama bin Laden and all these military reports are false and fictitious,” he said.
