From: lulu@COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU (by way of gustilo@pop-server.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: PH:MNLF LEADER WANTS TO MEET RAMOS (forwarded from SEASIA-L)
Date: 14 Oct 92 03:57:57 GMT
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


PHILIPPINES: MNLF LEADER WANTS TO MEET RAMOS IN REBEL ZONE. 10:53
            GMT [REUTR] R49210121412 MANILA, Oct 12, Reuter - Moslem
guerrilla leader Nur Misuari offered on Monday to meet President Fidel
Ramos in a rebel stronghold in the southern Philippines to discuss ending a
20-year-old Moslem separatist rebellion. But the chief of the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF) said any formal talks between the government and
rebels on ending the conflict must be held in a "neutral place" under the
auspices of the Islamic Conference Organisation ICO). Ramos refused direct
comment on Misuari's proposal, saying only he was very optimistic his
government and the MNLF would "come to a common ground eventually". "Venue
is really not the main issue here but it is the peace process," Ramos told
a news conference. Misuari, who lives in Saudi Arabia, said in an interview
over a Manila radio station he was ready to return to the Philippines and
meet Ramos. But he suggested that the meeting be held "inside our
homeland", a reference to MNLF strongholds on the southern island of
Mindanao where Moslems are fighting for self-rule. He said the meeting
could take place after the opening of formal peace talks between the
government and MNLF. Misuari was last in the Philippines in 1986 when he
met then president Corazon Aquino in the MNLF bastion of Jolo, a small
island off the Mindanao mainland. The meeting produced a ceasefire between
the two sides. Ramos, who took office in June, has offered peace to MNLF
rebels, communist guerrillas and right-wing army dissidents in a bid to
restore political stability in the country. A Philippine congressional
mission held exploratory talks with Misuari in the Libyan capital Tripoli
last week on the possibility of peace talks. Filipino Moslems, numbering
about five million, are a small minority in this predominantly Roman
Catholic country of 62 million but form a substantial community in
Mindanao. More than 50,000 people died at the height of the rebellion in
the 1970s. Fighting eased after the government of president Ferdinand
Marcos signed an agreement with Misuari in Tripoli in 1976 calling for
autonomy in 13 Mindanao provinces. But the MNLF guerrillas refused to lay
down their arms, charging that the Moslem-run regional government set up by
Manila in Mindanao enjoyed very little autonomy. "I don't want Mindanao to
become a battleground again," Misuari said in the interview. "I don't want
the people of Mindanao to suffer again only because of the lack of
political will to restore peace in the area." (c) Reuters Limited REUTER
GENERAL NEWS
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Lulu Turner
Dept of Political & Social Change
Research School of Pacific Studies
Australian National University
GPO Box 4, Canberra  ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA

tel: (06) 249 0173
fax: (06) 257 1893
e-mail (Internet): lulu@coombs.anu.edu.au
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino