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RI 'ready' to broker another peace talks between Manila and MNLF
Deadlock: Smoke billows from the scene where renewed fighting between government forces and Moro rebels, who are holding scores of civilian hostages, enters its second week on Monday in Zamboanga city in the southern Philippines
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span class="inline inline-center">Deadlock: Smoke billows from the scene where renewed fighting between government forces and Moro rebels, who are holding scores of civilian hostages, enters its second week on Monday in Zamboanga city in the southern Philippines. AP/Bullit Marquez
The Indonesian government is ready to facilitate another round of peace talks following renewed fighting between military soldiers and armed rebels in the southern Philippines that has seen dozens killed and thousands others displaced, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Monday.
'As of today, there is no formal request about that. But Indonesia, as part of the peace committee of the OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation], is always ready to facilitate such peace talks,' Marty told The Jakarta Post at the State Palace.
'But it would depend on all concerned parties whether they need such facilitation or not,' the minister added.
Conflict has been escalating between government forces and rebels from a breakaway faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in the southern city. Reuters reported that Philippine forces launched air strikes on Monday to root out rogue rebels to end more than a week of clashes that have killed scores of people. The army said at least 62 people had been killed, including 51 independence-seeking rebels and five civilians.
The fighting, which has entered its eighth day, has been largely in three coastal districts of Zamboanga city on the southern island of Mindanao. About 70,000 residents have been displaced.
Government soldiers traded mortar and machine gunfire with the rebels, while two helicopter gunships fired rockets at their positions, an army spokesman, said. Another army official, Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala, justified the use of helicopters despite the fact that the rebels were holding civilian hostages, saying the aircraft were part of an intensification of a 'calibrated response'.
'We need to use them in order to finish this at the soonest possible time,' Zagala said.
Up to 300 rebels are believed to be in the city. They object to a deal signed in last October with the main Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and are trying to derail the pact aimed at ending 40 years of conflict. But they are not expected to succeed, analysts say.
Over the past two decades, Indonesia has facilitated peace talks between the Philippine government and the MNLF, and between 1994 and 2002 sent the Garuda Contingent (Konga XVII) under the framework of the OIC peace process. Indonesia and the OIC were instrumental in the final settlement of the Mindanao conflict that claimed more than 120,000 lives during almost 27 years of fighting between government forces and MNLF rebels.
After years of intense fighting, a compromise was finally reached in 1996. The two agreed to sign the Final Peace Agreement, which was achieved during the administration of president Fidel V. Ramos. It was signed by ambassador Manual Tan of the Philippine government, MNLF chairman Nur Misuari and then Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas as facilitator and the OIC at the Malacanang Palace in September 1996.
The peace accord was concluded after four years of tough negotiations in Libya, Jakarta and finally in Mindanao.
'As neighbor and facilitator of the Final Peace Agreement 1996, Indonesia is calling for restraint and urges all parties to ensure the safety of civilians,' Marty previously said in a written statement.
