Philippine peace hopes in Muslim south

Manila, Mar 6: Philippine troops killed three members of the country's largest Muslim rebel group in a prolonged gunbattle overnight that could jeopardise plans to revive stalled peace talks between the two sides.

Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando said today that three members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and one soldier were killed in clashes at two villages in Cotabato, on the southern island of Mindanao. Two soldiers were wounded.

Ando said the fighting started at 2200 hrs (1400 GMT) yesterday and lasted till 0600 hrs today.

The military said the MILF triggered the confrontation after its members attacked troop positions.

But Rasid Ladiasan, a spokesman for the MILF's truce panel, said the military appeared to have no intention of abiding by the terms of a shaky 2003 ceasefire that has been strained by intermittent clashes since January.

''Troops keep on advancing towards the area where our forces repositioned. They push us to the wall with no option left but to fight,'' Ladiasan said in a mobile phone text message.

Last week, the government of the largely Catholic country said it hoped to resume peace talks with the MILF before congressional elections on May 14 after both sides had already met several times for ''backroom discussions''.

Negotiations to end nearly 40 years of conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people have been stalled since May 2006 over the size and wealth of a proposed ancestral homeland for three million Muslims in the south.

Analysts have said a breakthrough before the May polls was unlikely because a peace deal would likely provoke powerful political barons in the south whose support allies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were relying on.

Reuters

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