Troops and Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines have re-established a shaky, five-month truce after three days of pitched battles, both sides said on Wednesday. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the fighting at Datu Piang town, a marshy area in the centre of Mindanao island, would not affect formal peace talks that are set to resume under the auspices of Malaysia next month. "This is an isolated situation that will not derail the peace process," Arroyo said in a statement. She said members of a ceasefire committee were meeting to prevent an escalation of hostilities between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the biggest Muslim rebel group in this largely Roman Catholic nation. "There are no reports of armed encounters since Tuesday night, when both sides agreed to stop fighting," Lieutenant-General Rodolfo Garcia, who heads the government team on the ceasefire panel, told reporters. "We have also agreed to disengage our forces in the conflict area. However, the situation remains strenuous."
The fighting broke out when troops pursuing members of a kidnap-for-ransom gang, who abducted a car dealer on December 8, clashed with hundreds of MILF rebels. More than a dozen people, including five soldiers, had been killed in Mindanao since Saturday. Four soldiers were captured, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said. "We will be happy to turn them over to their families as soon as the situation settles down," Kabalu told Reuters, saying the rebel group had sustained minimal losses. Garcia said both sides had sent teams to investigate.
Malaysia, a mainly Muslim nation, is brokering attempts to restart formal negotiations to end a 31-year separatist rebellion by the MILF in which more than 120,000 people have died. The truce has largely held since June. The fighting broke out as a team of Malaysian ceasefire monitors were due to arrive in the Philippines. Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Lucero and Malaysian Ambassador Mohamed Taufik said on Monday — the day originally set for the arrival — that the trip had been postponed. But military sources told Reuters an advance team of Malaysian observers, led by a general, was expected to arrive in Manila on Thursday. The Malaysian state of Sabah lies to the west of the southern Philippine islands, the centre of the insurgency and home to the bulk of this country’s eight to 10 million Muslims. The talks, which began in 1997, stalled in late 2001 and nearly collapsed in February after troops overran a major rebel camp at Buliok in Mindanao. But former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad persuaded Arroyo to re-start the peace process during a meeting in Tokyo in May. |