Military

DATE=03/17/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES PEACE

NUMBER=5-53271

BYLINE=HEDA BAYRON

DATELINE=MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

EDS: THIS IS ONE OF A SERIES OF THREE BACKGROUNDERS. THE THIRD WILL BE FILED THURSDAY. SUGGEST THEY CAN BE USED THROUGH MARCH 29.

INTRO: The southern Philippine island of Mindanao is in a crisis. For a month, government officials have grappled with consequences of collapsed peace talks with the Muslim separatists. Violent attacks have rocked the region, killing dozens of civilians and rattling the national economy. V-O-A's Heda Bayron recently visited Mindanao, where people are still searching for an end to more than 30 years of conflict.

TEXT: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says the people of the southern island of Mindanao are out of patience with peace talks. She adds that many think that the time has come to use tough action against the rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Officials say nearly two years of peace negotiations have failed to make the Muslim-majority island more secure. Rebels continue attacking civilians despite a 2001 ceasefire agreement with the government.

In the most violent attack so far, authorities suspect M-I-L-F rebels in the bombing of Davao International Airport early this month and the government says this is evidence the rebels have rejected peace.

Even local leaders who once supported the peace process are turning against the rebels.

Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, once called "a Christian leader with a Muslim heart," was the first to denounce the Davao bombing. In the past, Mr. Duterte was one of the few Christian leaders in Mindanao who showed sympathy to the Muslim struggle for self-rule.

/// DUTERTE ACT ///

When you explode a bomb, when you kill young men and women, children, how can I categorize you as a rebel? So I consider you terrorists. And you think that you can take this country? Not in a million years.

/// END ACT ///

But others believe the government ruined the cease-fire when troops launched a massive attack against the M-I-L-F last month - destroying the group's most important command post in the center of Mindanao. The military says criminal gangs hiding inside the camp were using the ceasefire agreement as a shield.

Senator Edgardo Angara criticized the military for what he called an unnecessary disruption of the peace.

/// ANGARA ACT ///

The fall-out of that attack is what we are reaping now. So many civilian deaths and violence is being brought to the doors of urban centers.

/// END ACT ///

For more than 30 years, the M-I-L-F has been fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern islands of the predominantly Christian Philippines. Peace negotiations finally began in 2001, a year after government troops destroyed one of the rebels' largest camps.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo says her government is offering a hand of peace to the rebels, but her defense secretary warns that military operations will continue.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes acknowledges that part of the government's strategy is to use military pressure to force the M-I-L-F into talks.

/// REYES ACT ///

Negotiations are too complicated. To force them to return to the negotiating table, to hit them that's one strategy. The other strategy is you have confidence building measures.Sometimes you hit them hard, sometimes you offer an olive branch.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Reyes adds that this hard line stance against the rebels is what the people of Mindanao want.

/// 2nd REYES ACT ///

The people of Mindanao - they want to have peace and they want the armed forces and the police to run after these lawless elements - terrorists, criminals, extortionists and murderers.

/// END ACT ///

But peace advocates in Mindanao, such as Romulo de la Rosa, head of the Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao, disagree with the defense secretary's position. Mr. De la Rosa says the prospects for more peace talks are "very dim," but the military cannot solve the Mindanao problem.

/// DE LA ROSA ACT ///

If the government is serious about going back to the negotiating table then it must put a halt to the military offensive. The M-I-L-F has declared that it is willing to go back to the negotiating table (but) it did not want any pre-conditions. I think both sides must show their sincerity.

/// END ACT ///

The military says M-I-L-F leaders, including chairman Hashim Salamat, have gone into hiding since they were charged in the Davao bombing - a charge the group has consistently denied.

Justice Secretary and peace talks negotiator Simeon Datumanong says this will impede any resumption of the peace talks.

///DATUMANONG ACT IN TAGALOG, FADE UNDER ///

He says arrest warrants for the M-I-L-F leaders could force them to retreat further away from the negotiating table.

The issue for the Philippine government goes beyond its domestic concerns and the separatist goals of the M-I-L-F. The international community expects the Philippines to do its part in fighting terrorism. Foreign and Philippine intelligence reports say the M-I-L-F has ties with the regional terrorist network, Jemaah Islamiyah - which has been linked to the deadly bombing in Bali last year.

President Arroyo has asked help from the Organization of Islamic Countries and neighboring Malaysia to convince the rebels to resume peace negotiations. But some observers say it may be difficult to rebuild trust between the two sides and restart where they have left off - even if talks only ended just a month ago. (Signed)

NEB/HK/HB/MH