Philippines halts army offensive against Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered on Thursday a suspension of a military offensive against Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines, paving the way for the revival of peace talks stalled since August 2008.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) raising their rifles after they declared red alert status around Camp Darapanan, the rebels’ base in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, October 4, 2008 (Getty Images)
Police efforts to hunt down three rogue commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s largest Muslim rebel group in the south, would still continue, added Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.
“The AFP (armed forces) shall suspend all offensive operations in the conflict-affected areas,” Ermita told reporters, adding the order was aimed at creating an environment conducive for resuming peace talks to end 40 years of conflict that has killed over 120,000 people.
The government’s unilateral truce takes effect midnight Thursday, with about 4,000 troops on the southern island of Mindanao taking defensive positions, military chief General Victor Ibrado said. The government said talks, brokered by Malaysia since 2001, might resume next week in Kuala Lumpur, around the same time President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on July 30.
Rafael Seguis, the government’s chief peace negotiator, said the truce would allow nearly 350,000 displaced people to return to their farms and homes and allow children to go back to school.
“The president is very concerned with the situation of the internally displaced people in Maguindanao,” Seguis said.
A U.N. report in May said the Philippines had the biggest new internal displacement of people in 2008, exceeding Sudan and Congo.
Mohaqher Iqbal, the rebels’ chief peace negotiator and who had called for a truce earlier this month, said Arroyo’s directive was a positive development. He said the MILF would reciprocate the government’s gesture after ground troops complied with Arroyo’s order.
“We’re also contacting our field units and we’re issuing similar orders to stop offensive in two days,” Iqbal told Reuters by phone from his hideout on the southern island of Mindanao. The government ended peace negotiations in August 2008 after a deal to expand an existing Muslim autonomous region on Mindanao was stopped by the Supreme Court, which angered rogue elements of the MILF who attacked largely Catholic communities.
Nearly 600 people have been killed since then, many of them civilians caught in the fighting, and about 2,000 houses in Maguindanao province alone were burned down. (Reuters)
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