DATE=5/30/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=PHILIPPINES / REBELS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-262956
BYLINE=KONRAD MULLER
DATELINE=MANILA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: After four-days of intense fighting, the
Philippine military says it has taken a major base of
the country's leading Muslim secessionist group. As
Konrad Muller reports from Manila, the hostilities
occurred as negotiators resumed peace talks to end the
conflict in the southern Philippines.
TEXT: Camp Bushra - on the main southern island of
Mindanao - was the second-largest base of the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front. It was also one of seven
such bases acknowledged by Manila under a 1998 cease-
fire agreement. The government has captured two other
camps.
But Moro Islamic Liberation Front officials contest
the claim. They say the army has only seized a
forward defense post one-kilometer from the camp
center. The separatist leaders also say casualty
figures announced by the military are inflated.
An army spokesman earlier said 48-rebels and two-
soldiers died in the assault, which involved
helicopter gunships, bombs from aircraft, and heavy
artillery.
While fighting continues, the two sides resumed peace
talks in Cotabato City - 900-kilometers south of
Manila. This follows weeks of the worst fighting in
more than a decade in the southern Philippines, where
hundreds of people have been killed and 350-thousand
displaced.
Philippines National Police have also linked the
rebels to recent bombings that have killed one person
and injured 29 in Manila shopping complexes. Tuesday,
murder charges were filed against three separatist
leaders and 26 others accused of being involved.
Philippine President Joseph Estrada has set a June
30th deadline for reaching a political agreement.
Late Monday, he urged the rebels to seize, what he
called, a last best chance of peace.
But the Moro Islamic Liberation Front wants a U-N-
administered referendum on whether an Islamic state
should be established in the south. Manila rejects
this.
Meanwhile, on nearby Jolo island, talks are to resume
Wednesday on freeing 21 mainly foreign hostages seized
five-weeks ago by the Abu Sayyaf, a smaller and more
extreme Muslim separatist group in the Philippines.
(SIGNED)
NEB/HK/KM/GC/RAE
30-May-2000 08:28 AM EDT (30-May-2000 1228 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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