Resume talks with MILF or risk war: think-tank

The Philippines should resume talks with Muslim separatists, or risk renewed fighting in the troubled south between government forces and the insurgents, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned Wednesday.

Manila must jumpstart talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in order to consolidate gains made in parallel US-backed operations against Abu Sayyaf militants, the Brussels-based think-tank said in a new report.

"The Mindanao model of combining military operations with civic action operations against the Abu Sayyaf has been widely heralded as a success, but the gains could be short-lived", said Kit Collier, an ICG terrorism consultant.

"The model involves using counterinsurgency techniques for counter-terrorism goals, but the only way the Philippines will effectively manage domestic terrorism is to secure the cooperation of the MILF and MNLF -- and that requires concrete progress toward formal peace agreements."

The 12,000-strong MILF, which has waged a bloody campaign for a separate Muslim homeland since 1978, signed a truce with the Manila government in 2003 to open the door to peace talks, but they have stalled over land claims.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) signed a peace agreement with Manila in 1996, but some elements of the group continue to fight government forces on the southern island of Jolo .
The ICG said the success of the military campaign against the Abu Sayyaf has rested largely on the government's coordination with the MILF for intelligence information.

But it warns the security operations are "confusing counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism and risk pushing the Abu Sayyaf group into the arms of the broader insurgencies in Mindanao ' -- the MILF and the MNLF.

The report said the urgency of finalizing peace deals was even more acute after Malaysia announced in April that it was withdrawing from an international monitoring team that has kept the lid on conflict in Mindanao since 2004.

The report urges the Philippines to revive the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) -- a body designed to facilitate information-sharing with the MILF, which it said had been "critical" to keeping the conflict from escalating.

It also encouraged Manila to set up a similar arrangement with the MNLF.

"But the leadership of both insurgencies will only be willing to provide information on terrorists in their midst as part of a political endgame, and the Philippines government is stalling while the US appears more focused on economic aid than political agreements," the report said.
John Virgoe, the ICG's Southeast Asia Director, noted: "The number of terrorists in the Philippines is small relative to the mass-based insurgencies in which they take cover. "But the Abu Sayyaf and its allies remain dangerous because of their potential to drag the latter (MILF and MNLF) back into war." (Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=118235)