By Xinhua,
Manila : The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Philippines warned Friday its ceasefire with government will collapse after August 31 unless the International Monitoring Team (IMT) is “revived.”
Unless the IMT’s mandate is renewed, the contingents of the monitoring team will all go home, and the ceasefire will eventually collapse due to “shattered trust and confidence” between the parties involved, said Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator of the 12,000-member rebel group, quoted in a report posted on its website. The IMT’s mandate is scheduled to end on August 31.
“The peace panels must meet before August 31, which is the end of the mandate of the present IMT, and decide to renew its mandate and tour of duty in Mindanao,” Iqbal said.
Iqbal made the claim before the international and non-government organizations on June 4, according to the report.
The MILF, fighting for a Muslim state in southern Philippines’ Mindanao since its founding in 1978, signed a transient truce with the government in 2003 but peace talks have been on and off as two sides can not agree on the size and wealth of the proposed ancestral homeland for Muslims in Mindanao.
Iqbal said that there are procedures in the peace talks that both parties must follow.
In the case of the IMT, extending its tour of duty and inviting other countries to join it can be decided only through a meeting of the government and MILF panels, he added.
Renewing the IMT mandate is not automatic, as IMT member countries like Malaysia, Libya, Brunei, and Japan have the final say whether to act favorably on the joint request, he said.
The IMT was deployed in 2004 after the Philippine government and MILF signed a truce and started peace talks in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia, a key role in the team, announced in April that the IMT mandate will not be extended after it expires on Aug. 31 this year due to lack of progress in the talks that it has been brokering.
Apart from 60 Malaysians in the IMT, Brunei, Libya, Japan and Canada have also sent a dozen monitors to the IMT. All these countries are expected to end their mission after Malaysia pulls out its contingent.