From: news@netnews.upenn.edu (USENET News System)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: Ramos Confident About End of Muslim Rebellion
Date: 13 Oct 92 20:49:14 GMT
Article-I.D.: microlab.-131092164918
Followup-To: soc.culture.filipino
Organization: University of Pennsylvania


	COTABATO, Philippines (UPI) -- President Fidel Ramos said Saturday he
is optimistic last week's talks with rebel leaders in Libya could settle
a decades-olde Muslim separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines.
	Ramos said a three-member delegation from Manila met with Moro
National Liberation Front chairman Nur Misuari in Tripoli on Oct. 3-5
and urged him to come home and join peace negotiations.
	He said Misuari, who has led the MNLF's war for a separate Muslim
state in the southern island of Mindanao since the early 1970s, was 
``disposed'' to return to the Philippines in the future.
	Ramos flew to Cotabato City, seat of an autonomous region of four
largely Muslim provinces in the southern island of Mindanao, and
released funds for the development of the area. Cotabato is 550 miles)
south of Manila.
	``We adhere to autonomy to enable our Muslim brothers to grow within
the context of their culture,'' Ramos said of the Autonomous Region for
Muslim Mindanao created in 1989.
	``Secession, however, is not and will never be an option for us,''
said Ramos, a West Point-trained former general and defense secretary
who had led the fight against Muslim guerrillas.
	Ramos said the preliminary talks were ``conducted in an atmosphere of
cordiality, friendship and optimism'' and he thanked the Libyan
government for hosting them.
	``The talks ended with a note of confidence and optimism with both
panels agreeing that they have accomplished a very positive step forward
and that the light at the end of the tunnel has become brighter,'' Ramos
said in a statement.
	Ramos said his emissaries, headed by Congressman Eduardo Ermita,
informed Misuari about the government's ``overriding desire to to
achieve peace with honor'' among the country's three insurgencies.
	Ramos also has offered peace to communist insurgents in a 23-year-old
insurrection and military rebels responsible for seven coup attempts
against his predecessor, Corazon Aquino.
	More than 50,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Muslim
separatist war, which reached its height in the 1970s.
	The rebellion has simmered down, although military estimates put the
MNLF strength at 15,000 guerrillas.
	Misuari, who is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, returned to the
Philippines briefly in 1986 and forged a ceasefire with Aquino during
talks held in the remote southern island of Jolo.
	The ceasefire remains in effect although the peace talks failed over
Misuari's demand to implement a 1976 agreement signed in Tripoli
granting autonomy to 13 Muslim provinces in Mindanao.
	Aquino, however, insisted on a plebiscite to determine which
provinces wanted autonomy. The plebiscite was held in February 1989 and
only four provinces voted for autonomy.
	Ramos said he also would talk with the breakaway Moro Islamic
Liberation Front, which has about 2,900 rebels, and the Moro Islamic
Reformist Group, comprised of 900 armed men.
	``We will talk with all factions,'' the president told a news
conference. ``We cannot afford to leave the other factions behind.''