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Manila: The Philippines ended peace talks with the country's largest Muslim separatist group yesterday, scrapping an 11-year peace process and raising the spectre of more violence in the conflict-ravaged south.
Manila's sudden shunning of the 11,000-member Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chokes any possibility of an economic lift for the southern island of Mindanao.
The island has attracted little foreign investor interest despite large deposits of nickel, gold and copper, as well as off-shore gas reserves and agricultural lands because of the years of violence and uncertainty.
"There are no more talks," presidential spokesman and former peace adviser Jesus Dureza said. "We're dissolving the peace panel. You don't need it when you're ending talks with an armed group. We'll start consulting with the people on the ground and find out how can we resolve the Muslim problem," he said.
Peace panel
President Gloria Arroyo decided to scrap the talks after rogue MILF members attacked communities on Mindanao last month, killing civilians and burning property, Dureza said.
Manila has insisted its decision was not a return to war and a new peace panel composed of non-MILF stakeholders from Mindanao would be formed to try and end a conflict that has killed over 120,000 people since the late 1960s. But Kuala Lumpur, which had been chairing the talks since 2001, warned that violence could escalate and that the MILF had to be involved.
"If the peace process is to prevail, the process has to move forward through renewed format and perimeters agreed by both parties," said Othman Abdul Razzaq, Malaysia's chief facilitator to the negotiations.
"The alternative would be more violence as hopelessness sets in. I just hope both sides would exercise utmost restraint to preserve peace, which has been elusive in Mindanao."
Analysts said the decision to pull the plug on the talks reflected the absence of real political will to end the conflict.
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