Philippine Muslim rebels warn of new fighting

SULTAN KUDARAT, Philippines — The Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group warned Saturday that fighting could break out again if efforts to revive peace talks fail, saying a new truce remains fragile.

Months of deadly clashes in the south eased in July when the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front separately declared a halt to offensives to allow the Malaysian-brokered talks to resume and a large number of displaced villagers to return home.

Both sides agreed last week in Malaysia to allow still-unspecified foreign countries and private groups to observe the talks and ensure compliance in any agreement.

Rebel leader Murad Al Haj Murad said the attempts by the government and his 11,000-strong group to settle the decades-long rebellion could be the last.

“If the peace talks will not succeed, I don’t see any possibility of another peace process,” Murad told reporters Saturday in a rebel stronghold near southern Sultan Kudarat township.

“We fear there can be anarchy … nobody can control the situation,” Murad said.

The rebels have been fighting for Muslim self-rule in Mindanao, the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic country. It is the biggest of at least four Muslim rebel groups that have waged a bloody rebellion in the south.

Rebel spokesman Eid Kabalu said the current truce remains fragile because the two sides have not restored joint bodies which were set up in the past to rapidly resolve any conflict. They include a Malaysia-led group of foreign truce monitors that was dismantled amid renewed clashes last year.

“This is a fragile cessation of hostilities,” Kabalu said.

Negotiations collapsed in August last year when the Philippine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a preliminary deal on an expanded Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.

A deadly rampage led by three rebel commanders who were upset by the stalled deal sparked months of clashes that killed hundreds and displaced more than half a million people. A major military offensive failed to capture the commanders.

Murad said he will not surrender the three commanders and called for an independent investigation to determine if they committed any crime.

U.S. and European officials have called for the resumption of talks to help turn rebel strongholds into economic growth areas instead of possible sanctuaries for al-Qaida-linked militants.