Wednesday, May 07, 2008
RP allays fears of new fighting with impending withdrawal of Malaysian peacekeepers (7:53 p.m.)
MANILA -- The impending withdrawal of Malaysian peacekeepers from the southern Philippines will not lead to renewed fighting between government troops and Muslim guerrillas as long as both sides respect a cease-fire, an official said Wednesday.
An initial group of 29 Malaysian cease-fire monitors will leave the southern region of Mindanao on Saturday and the remaining 12 are scheduled to follow by the end of August, scaling back the strength of a 60-man foreign contingent safeguarding a 2003 truce, Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis said.
Pro-peace advocates have raised concerns that the withdrawal of the Malaysian monitors, who arrived in 2004, could spark new clashes, threaten the cease-fire and further undermine already-stalled talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country's largest Muslim rebel group.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's adviser on the peace talks, Jesus Dureza, said he was confident that a joint committee set up by the government and the rebels to quickly resolve possible conflicts would work despite the absence of foreign monitors.
"Even if you deploy 1,000 foreign monitors, if the military and the MILF will not follow the cease-fire agreement, nothing will happen," Dureza said at a news conference Wednesday. (AP) |
