The negotiations between the government and Muslim rebels look to have hit a bump. The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is none too pleased that the latest round of exploratory talks ended in Kuala Lumpur last Thursday without the negotiating panels signing at least one of three annexes to the Bangsamoro Framework Agreement.
The family of a freed Australian hostage expressed hope on Monday that his kidnappers, including Abu Sayyaf bandits and rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who kept him in jungle captivity for 15 months, would be captured and punished so such ordeals would not be repeated.
The Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front will resume peace talks next week in Malaysia, even as followers of the Sulu sultanate are embroiled in conflict with Malaysian security forces there.
A Bangladesh-inspired organization out to sow peace and development in poor and strife-torn communities vowed to resolve the illiteracy problem hounding the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao for decades.
The chief negotiator of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Mohagher Iqbal, reportedly lost his cool during the latest round of peace talks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last week, ostensibly because of a “seeming distrust” he felt from the government panel, according to a source close to the talks.
The 34th exploratory talks between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ended in a “technical impasse” even as they “made tremendous gains” in resolving remaining issues related to power-sharing, wealth-sharing and normalization.
A Belgium-based non-government organization focusing on conflict prevention has said that the Philippine government’s framework peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front must hurdle several issues to achieve lasting peace in Mindanao.
Nobel peace prize laureate Lord William David Trimble said giving up violence and tackling problems peacefully through democratic means would be keys to lasting chief in Mindanao.
One issue that has yet to be threshed out before a peace agreement can be finalized between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is the matter of a “trust fund” to help combatants and others affected by the war normalize their lives, the head of the rebel panel said Sunday.
A British expert on peace negotiations on Friday lauded the progress in the talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as he offered to share his experience in resolving the Northern Ireland conflict in hopes of giving “more confidence” to the parties involved.
Swiss experts will soon begin clearing unexploded bombs in Mindanao, after Muslim rebels and the government signed a peace pact, the European Union said Thursday.
President Benigno Aquino will seek the support of European countries for a Bangsamoro region in Mindanao during the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) in Vientiane, Laos, next month.
