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MANILA : Peace negotiators from the Philippine government and the main Muslim separatist group said Friday new talks are urgently needed to keep a five-year-old ceasefire from collapsing.
Both sides separately said the talks must resume in order to extend the mandate of the International Monitoring Team (IMT), which has been overseeing the ceasefire between Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said in a statement that the mandate of the monitoring team ends on August 31 and if it is not extended, then "the ceasefire between the MILF and government will eventually collapse due to shattered trust and confidence between the parties."
Government negotiator Rodolfo Garcia agreed that the "it is important that we have talks to extend the mandate of the IMT before it expires," although he stated that the expiration would be on September 9.
The IMT was made up of observers from various countries that had been monitoring the ceasefire signed in 2003.
However last month, the Malaysians, who made up the bulk of the team, withdrew from the country, apparently due to the slow progress of the peace talks.
Iqbal warned that before the MILF resumes talks on extending the mandate of foreign monitors, they would insist that the government discuss the contentious issue of "ancestral domain," which has stalled previous talks.
The Muslim rebels are demanding more control of areas in the southern Philippines which were lost during the Spanish colonial period, an issue that has bogged the political settlement down in recent months.
Officials have warned that this would require passage of a new law that would face opposition from the country's Christian majority.
Garcia expressed confidence that both sides would "be able to have a meeting in Kuala Lumpur ahead of the deadline or the end of the term of the IMT."
In a related development, Malaysia's opposition figurehead Anwar Ibrahim said Friday the opposition was calling on Kuala Lumpur to continue deploying troops to monitor the ceasefire.
"We in the opposition call on the Malaysian government to resume participation in the multilateral team," he said at an academic forum in Manila.
Malaysia has been fostering the peace talks between Manila and the 12,000-strong MILF.
The rebels have been fighting since 1978 to set up an Islamic state in the southern third of this largely-Christian nation. Despite the ceasefire, sporadic incidents of fighting still take place.
- AFP /ls
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