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Southeast Asia
MILF threatens new war if they can't have their way
2008-06-09
(AKI) - The largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines issued a warning on Friday threatening fresh violence against the government if peacekeepers withdraw from the south of the country.
People might take them more seriously if they had a different acronym
The rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said that war would be inevitable if the mandate of the International Monitoring Team was not extended.

Since 2004, the IMT has been monitoring a ceasefire in the southern region of Mindanao and its troops have helped create a climate for peace negotiations between the government and the MILF. The mandate for the peacekeepers expires on 31 August.

The warning was given by Mohagher Iqbal, the leader of the MILF committee in-charge of negotiating with the government. In a message published on Friday on the MILF website, Iqbal said that unless the IMT's mandate was renewed, its soldiers would go home, and the ceasefire would collapse due to "shattered trust and confidence" between the MILF and the government.

The IMT was responsible for reducing the number of clashes between the military and Muslim rebels from 700 in 2002 to less than a dozen last year. The peacekeeping force was originally composed of 41 soldiers from Malaysia, 10 from Brunei, two Libyan diplomats and a Japanese official.

However the first serious blow to the IMT came when Malaysia withdrew half its contingent last month with the other half due to leave by September. Malaysia made the decision to withdraw after the lack of progess in the peace talks.

Iqbal said that the MILF will not restart talks with Manila just to renew the mandate of the IMT. "If we do restart the talks, we will have to concentrate on the agreements of the ancestral territories," he said referring to the area covering Mindanao and the archipelago of Sulu.
Posted by:Fred

#2  NEW PEOPLE's ARMY > seems they recently captured circa 14 guns and burned down an army detanchment area.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-06-09 22:31  

#1  Muslims always seem to "demand". Maybe they need to learn to ask, instead. I'm not sure what it will take, but it needs to be done - soon.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2008-06-09 15:45  

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