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Philippines postpones talks with Muslim rebels in Kuala Lumpur
 Manila - The Philippine government has postponed the scheduled resumption of peace talks with Muslim secessionist rebels in Malaysia due to its failure to decide on how to move forward in the negotiations, a guerrilla spokesman said Tuesday. Negotiators for the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were set to depart for Kuala Lumpur on Monday when a Malaysian official informed them that the two-day talks scheduled to start on Wednesday will not push through. 'We were already in Manila and we were all set to go to Kuala Lumpur...but at the last hour the government has asked for a postponement,' said Mohaqher Iqbal, chief MILF peace negotiator. Iqbal said Rodolfo Garcia, head of the government peace panel, told the Malaysian facilitator that he (Garcia) 'has not been given clear guidelines on how to proceed with the peace process.' Peace talks between the MILF and the government have been stalled since September last year after the two sides failed to agree on the scope of a proposed Muslim homeland in the southern region of Mindanao. Garcia, who was appointed chief government negotiator only in June, said he asked for the postponement of the resumption of the talks because he still has to clarify details about the government's positions on issues to be discussed in the talks. 'I asked for it (postponement) because I need more time to clarify some things, concretize stands to have the definite negotiating positions to present to them in the next rounds of talks,' he said. Garcia said that despite the postponement, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remained upbeat about the peace talks - a priority in her programmes to achieve lasting solution to the decades-old Muslim insurgency in Mindanao. 'It is not right to say that the president is lacking political will, she is determined to solve the problem in Mindanao,' he said. Garcia said the ongoing military offensives against Islamic militants in the southern province of Basilan and nearby Jolo island were not a factor in the postponement of the talks. The operations in Basilan and Jolo were triggered by the killing of 14 marines, 10 of whom were beheaded or mutilated, during a firefight with MILF forces in the town of Albarka on July 10. The MILF admitted to killing the marines, whom they accused of violating a 2003 ceasefire agreement, but denied beheading or mutilating them. An inquiry later blamed al-Qaeda-linked Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels for the crime. Posted by: anonymous5089 2007-08-21 |
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