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| Southeast Asia |
| Manila's chief negotiator with Muslim rebels quits |
| 2007-06-17 |
| The Philippines’ chief negotiator with Muslim separatists has resigned, sources in the government and rebel peace panels said on Saturday, raising doubts about the resumption of talks in Malaysia next month. Silvestre Afable’s resignation came at a time when the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) were close to restarting talks on a proposed ancestral homeland for 3 million Muslims in the south of the country. “This is a setback,” Mohaqher Iqbal, the rebels’ chief peace negotiator, told Reuters in a telephone interview. “This is not a very good indication. This could affect the entire peace process. At a personal level, we could be starting all over again.” The government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has not officially announced Afable’s decision to quit the peace panel, where he has served since the two sides agreed to return to negotiations after hostilities erupted in February 2003. A member of the government peace panel told Reuters he got a mobile phone text message from Afable late on Friday saying he had decided to quit. Afable gave no reason and it was not known what triggered his decision. Calls to his telephone were not answered. “He was getting frustrated because he was not getting enough support from the president and from her security officials,” said another member of the peace panel, who declined to be named. “He felt there were some people in the Cabinet who were not serious in finding a lasting solution to the Muslim rebellion in the south.” The government has been talking with Muslim rebels to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people and displaced 2 million in the south of the mainly Roman Catholic country. |
| Posted by:Fred |